Then You Look At Me
by knowthescore
Summary: Follow Santana, Brittany and the rest of the Glee Club as they journey through Hogwarts. What obstacles will they encounter? Are spells and tests and love really the worst of the group's troubles? Or is there something even more dangerous on the horizon? HP! Brittana and Siblings!Sam and Britt. Requires some slight knowledge of the HP universe. Rated T for now.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey, everyone! So this is my new story, called Then You Look At Me. Title is taken from a Celine Dion song, which, disclaimer: I totally do not own. Among the other things I do not own are Harry Potter; the books, characters, world, etc. I definately do not own Glee or it's characters, although that would be awesome. **

**A huge thank you goes out to my Beta, shanpagne16. She's so awesome. If you like Twilight fanfiction, she has a rather awesome story over there. Check it out!**

**I don't think there's much else I have to say, so, without further ado, here's chapter one. :)**

* * *

"BRITTANYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" Santana flung the door open to her next-door neighbor's house with practiced ease. "I GOT MY LETTER! WHERE ARE- Oh," She stopped screeching as Brittany came sliding around the corner from the kitchen in her socks, which apparently didn't have much grip, because moments later she crashed into Santana. Laughing, Santana righted her friend and gave her a furious hug. Brittany was literally bouncing with joy.

"Me, too, San! Me, too!" Brittany looked like she was going to say more, before stopping and considered for a moment what she would say next. Santana, quite used to this, waited patiently until Brittany turned to her. "San," she said thoughtfully, "should we go find Q?"

Now it was Santana's turn to fall quiet. In her rush to get to Brittany, she had completely forgotten about Quinn, Brittany's other next door neighbor and the third musketeer in their little gang. The girls had promised each other months ago that they would wait and open their letters all together.

"Oh, um… yeah, sure!" Brittany's face lit up at her statement, before she took Santana's hand and dragged her out the door.

As soon as the door was closed, the girls skipped across the lawns, letters in hand, stopping at Quinn's doorstep and knocking frantically. A few moments later, the door was opened by a fairly somber looking Judy Fabray.

"Hey, girls, Quinny's in her room. She's a bit upset at the moment, so just be mindful of that, please?"

The girls frantically nodded.

"Alright, come in. Please don't forget to take your shoes off because of the new carpet!"

The girls nodded again before being left to their own devices. Brittany had some difficulty getting her shoes off, but Santana was there to help her.

"Sanny," Brittany whispered softly. "Why is Quinn upset?"

Santana simply shrugged a bit, before taking Brittany's hand and leading her up the stairs to Quinn's room.

The girls tiptoed through the open door just to the left of the landing. They could see their friend's shoulders shaking from her four-post bed, and within seconds, Brittany was next to her, cradling Quinn's head to her chest. Santana took a few moments longer, but soon she had thrown herself next to her friends, her head on Brittany's shoulder, looking at Quinn in sadness, an arm on both girls' backs.

"Q," Brittany asked shyly, "what's the matter?"

Quinn took one look at the girl's letters, still clasped tightly in their hands, and it set off another wave of tears. "I… I…" she gasped tearfully. "I haven't gotten my letter," and everything following was unintelligible sobs.

Understanding the issue now, Brittany pulled the miserable girl even closer to her chest, and Santana started rubbing comforting circles on each of her girls' backs. "Quinn, honey…" Brittany purred. "You just haven't gotten it _yet._" This caused Quinn to lift her head a little. "Don't worry, Q! I'm sure it'll be here soon!" Brittany grinned down at her friend, causing the corners of Quinn's mouth to jerk up in an attempt to smile.

The girls were able to distract Quinn for about ten minutes, which was the time it took Brittany and Santana to recap their adventure from the day before where they thought they saw a Red Cap down by the river. "I _swear_, Q, it was totally real! I wonder if the river was an old battlefield of some sort." Brittany gushed. Santana was able to fill in the parts Brittany left out or forgot, and pretty soon Quinn was smiling again. Brittany had just finished talking about the turtle fish the girls had found and named 'Raymond' because they "Thought it was appropriate." When she suddenly burst out, saying "I can't wait to read about all the creatures around the castle in _Hogwarts, a History_!"

Santana stilled her hand, which had made its way down to Brittany's ribs to make random designs there, and it was enough to let Brittany know she may have misspoken. She bit her lip anxiously, and opened her mouth to apologize to Quinn, but was interrupted with a rapid pecking at Quinn's bedroom window.

Quinn jolted out of bed to let the owl in, and probably would have passed out with relief if Santana hadn't been seconds behind to catch her.

"Oh," Quinn gasped, "Oh, thank God. You guys have no idea the pressure I was under to be my parent's perfect offspring, I have no idea what would've happened…" Quinn stopped talking and just cradled her letter close. "Oh, hang on." She ripped open her bedroom door that Santana had closed behind her and yelled "Mom! Mama! I got my letter!" She proceeded to tear down the stairs and towards her mother.

Brittany and Santana went to sit back down on Quinn's bed until she inevitably came back up. Santana pulled Brittany into her, and Brittany merrily snuggled her nose into Santana's neck.

"I'm really glad Quinn got her letter. I don't know what we would have done at Hogwarts without her," Santana sighed, pulling Brittany closer to her body.

"Silly," Brittany reached up and bopped her nose, "I told you that she would."

"You're right." Santana said with a playful eye roll. "You're always right. You're so smart." And she could feel Brittany's lips pull into a smile against her neck.

* * *

Hours later, after the girls had finished pouring over their supply lists, discussing what pets they would bring to school, what wand type they thought they would get, and if they could beg to be on their perspective Quidditch teams, the subject turned to houses.

"Guys," Santana began cautiously, "What happens if we don't get sorted into the same house?"

"What makes you say that, San?" Quinn countered, inquisitive.

"Well… neither of you are really Slytherins. And I'm going to be one, so it's going to totally suck that we can't have classes together. You'll probably be a Gryffindor, Q, 'cause you're all kinds of courageous. And B, you'll probably be in-"

"Hufflepuff," Brittany finished for her. "I wouldn't mind it, though. That's what house my mom was in, and I really wouldn't mind being in the 'nice house'," Brittany smiled dreamily.

"Actually, I was going to say Ravenclaw." Santana said, smiling. "You're a genius, Britt. I wouldn't be surprised if the hat knew it as soon as it touched your pretty head."

Brittany gave her a smile that could kick start the formation of a solar system, and Santana felt butterflies in her tummy.

'_Wait, what? What was _that_?'_ Santana thought. It had happened a few times, but only around Brittany. She guessed it was just part of her natural charm... literally. She knew everyone expressed it differently, and she assumed this was Brittany's way of doing it. Giving people butterflies. How fitting.

"Well, S," Quinn piped up. "There's no need to worry about it now! Let's cross that bridge when we get to it!"

Santana smiled brightly in response, accepting the distraction.

"Okay, girls," Quinn began again. "What do you say you both sleep over here and we can wake up tomorrow, together, and make our moms take us to Diagon Alley?"

Brittany and Santana rapidly agreed, and owled their parents to let them know they would be staying over Quinn's.

It was convenient that they all lived right next-door to each other, and that their parents were all friends. Both Brittany and Santana's fathers worked at St. Mungo's, the wizarding hospital, which is where Santana's mother had worked until she left to stay at home and raise her daughter. Brittany's mother, however, had been a very famous, very talented Auror, until she left to have Brittany, and a few years later, Britt's sister, Rosie. Four years ago, Brittany and Rosie's Aunt and Uncle had been tragically killed in a house fire.

At the time, Brittany was seven years old; Rosie was five. Brittany's Aunt and Uncle had left behind their son, Sam. Sam was Brittany's age, and when Brittany's parents adopted Sam, the pair became two peas in a pod. Sam was Brittany's best friend… after Santana, of course.

When Nancy Pierce had worked as an auror, she was introduced to Quinn's father, Russell. Russell Fabray was a lead editor for the Daily Prophet, and was highly respected all throughout the wizarding world hub that was the Ministry of Magic. While Maribel Lopez and Nancy Pierce had quit their jobs to raise their children, Judy Fabray had decided long ago to be a stay-at-home mother, taking care of two sons before Quinn - Josh and Peter. Josh had already graduated Hogwarts, and was now training under August Pierce and Carlos Lopez. So, in living together and raising their children together, Nancy, Judy, and Maribel became very close, and, by extension, their three girls became the best of friends.

* * *

The next morning Brittany, being their human alarm clock, decided to wake the other girls by viciously jumping up and down on the bed. Quinn was up by the second bounce. She groaned and rolled over, out of the bed, and into the bathroom to freshen up.

Santana was still asleep. Brittany was fully aware of how difficult it was to wake Santana without her freaking out and accidentally punching you in the nose, and she relished the task at their sleepovers.

She could almost always stop Santana from becoming violent.

"Time to wake up, Santana." She whispered near the girl's ear, scratching her back softly.

"Saaaaaaaan." She tried again… no movement. The only sound that occurred was a deep, low grumble coming from somewhere in the depths of Santana's chest.

Brittany pondered a moment on what her next wake-up method would be, before she lightly pinned Santana's arms down and kiss-attacked her face. Santana's face scrunched up very cutely for a few seconds, before she opened her eyes blearily and looked up at Brittany.

"Hi," Santana managed to croak.

Brittany giggled a wispy "Hi," in response.

With Santana's guard momentarily down, Brittany seized the perfect opportunity to tickle her best friend on Quinn's bed. Santana immediately guffawed, before squealing and begging for mercy, until Brittany finally got off of her with a mischievous smile.

"Girls! Breakfast!" Judy called down to them. Brittany raced out the door, with Santana hot on her heels.

When they got downstairs, the girls saw that Sam and Nancy were already seated at the table. Brittany skipped over to them, gave both her mother and brother kisses on the cheek, and sat down across the table from Sam. Santana followed, gave Sam a wave and Mrs. Pierce a hug.

"Where's the brat?" Santana inquired as soon as she sat down next to Brittany.

"Quidditch camp for the day," Nancy replied happily. She was much too chipper in the mornings, Santana thought. She thought about how Brittany was always happy when she woke up, and there was Sam, all smiley and alert diagonally across from her. _Maybe it's a family thing,_ Santana mused.

Brittany caught her thinking expression, and nudged her shoulder playfully. Santana smiled back as Quinn came down the stairs, hair freshly washed and already in her going-out clothes.

Quinn took the remaining seat at the table, and then looked around. "Where's Pete?" She turned to her mother. "Is he still sleeping?"

"Oh, no," Judy answered, sighing, "He had to work, so he left me a list of his things he would need for school. I told him if he forgot anything we could make a quick stop before you all have to get on the train."

The girls nodded silently, each digging into their own breakfast. Sam was already on his second helping of eggs.

"Looks like it's just us, then!" Nancy said cheerfully.

"Mrs. Pierce-" Santana started to say.

"Santana." Nancy chided the girl, "How many times do I have to tell you? Please, call me Nancy. Or, if you insist on using the 'Ms.' at least call me 'Ms. Nancy'."

Santana smiled down at her plate. "Sorry." Santana mumbled bashfully. Brittany nudged her shoulder again. "Oh! Right. Um, Ms.… Nancy? What about my mom?"

"Oh! I almost forgot." Nancy exclaimed. "Santana, your mom is going to be meeting us there, your father accidentally left his lunch at home, so she's bringing it to him," she smiled at the girl.

The group divided, getting ready to travel by floo to Diagon Alley. Brittany was with Sam, Santana with Quinn, and the mothers were together. One by one, each of the pairs took a handful of the powder, stepped into the fireplace, and yelled 'Diagon Alley!'

The girls were all glad that they had been to Diagon Alley prior to this outing; otherwise all of the hustle and bustle may have frightened them.

"Okay, girls… and boy." Judy and Nancy pulled the four youngsters aside. Santana smirked a bit at this.

She didn't understand why Sam always had to come on all of their trips. It wasn't that she didn't like him; she liked him a lot, actually. It's just that whenever Sam was around, Brittany paid less attention to her because she liked playing with him. Santana wasn't jealous, or anything. She just liked days where it was just her and Britt. It was then that Santana noticed the moms talking- had they been doing that this whole time? Everyone knows not to talk over her inward soliloquies! Santana sighed, and turned back to the conversation.

"So, ground rules?" Judy asked.

"No talking to adult strangers, we all have to stick together, if we have to go to the bathroom it needs to be in groups of two, and only buy what it says we need on our lists." Brittany rattles off. Santana grinned at her. How could anyone ever call her stupid?

"When are we going to meet up with Santana's mom?" Quinn inquired.

"We're meeting her outside the Leaky Cauldron for lunch; remember we're going there before we get your wands and pets?" The foursome nodded. "Okay, good luck kids! We'll see you at lunch!" and with that, Nancy and Judy were off.

The foursome sighed in relief. This was their big test before Hogwarts; to prove to their parents that they could take care of themselves, if only for a few hours.

"Guys, can we get all our books right before lunch? They'll be the heaviest to carry around." Everyone agreed quickly with Quinn's suggestion.

"Do we want to start at the apothecary?" Santana offered. The group nodded and went to join the line of students buying their potion supplies.

It was Brittany who first noticed the posters. They were walking out of the apothecary when she tugged on Santana's sleeve, and pointed at the nearest pillar. "San," she gasped, "Look!"

Santana followed Brittany's finger to a poster of the notorious criminal, Sirius Black. Santana instinctively took Brittany's hand and squeezed it gently, as if to say she'd protect her, even from a thoughtless criminal who blew up thirteen people many years ago. Brittany squeezed back, before Quinn decided that was enough lingering, thank you very much, and took them all to get cauldrons.

Santana and Sam had to spend an entire ten minutes convincing Brittany to not get the one with sparkles that changed color "No offence, B-bear, but don't cauldrons melt pretty often? Are you sure you don't want to spend your allowance on a pet instead?"

Begrudgingly, Brittany nodded, and they left the shop with four brand new pewter cauldrons in tow. The cauldrons were an excellent idea, because now they could store all their things in them without having to carry it all in their arms.

Sam pushed open the door to Madame Malkin's shop, and held it open behind him for his sister and friends. This was what Santana was most excited about, after her wand, of course. There was something about getting their Hogwarts robes fitted that confirmed with certainty that they were going.

A middle-aged witch bustled over to them. "Hogwarts?" she asked, with a twinkle in her eye.

"Yes ma'am." Sam answered respectfully. The witch, who they assumed was Madame Malkin, blushed slightly at the sight of his easy smile.

The girls rolled their eyes. Sam was so charming, they weren't even sure he was consciously doing it anymore. Santana scoffed lightly.

The elder witch giggled and gave them all roughly-sized robes to try on.

The girls finished first, and Sam was just being hemmed when the door rang, signaling someone walking in. Three heads turned to see none other than Noah Puckerman, a boy their age whom all four of them had met before at Ministry parties. There was a tall, lanky boy next to him.

None of the girls recognized him, so they all became rather shy until Noah said, "Hey, guys. Imagine all of us being in Diagon Alley on the same day. Excited for Hogwarts?" The girls all nodded, while Sam was looking at the tall boy with interest. "Me too. Already got a letter asking me to be on the house Quidditch team this year."

Santana rolled her eyes. "Alright, Noah." She said suspiciously. Obviously he was lying. How can they ask you to be on the team when they don't even know what house you'll be in?

"Actually, I go by Puck now. It's more badass." And before any of the girls could correct him, Madame Malkin spoke up with a mega-watt smile and an "All done! Off you go!" to Sam.

He stepped down, still in his Hogwarts robes, when a realization came over his face. "Hey… are you Finn Hudson?" the lanky boy looked completely shocked.

"Um… uh… yeah, how'd you know?" he questioned.

"I think I used to play ball with you when we were younger."

It took Finn a moment, but he finally figured it out and gasped, "Sam? Sam Evans? Holy crap, dude, it's been forever!" Sam reached out to clasp Finn's hand.

This was getting a bit boring for the girls, so they told Sam they would meet him and the boys at Flourish and Blott's down the street.

Entering the store, the girls looked around the familiar space. They knew where their books would be, but on the way there, Brittany noticed books that she had never seen before in the front of the bookstore. They were in a large, gold cage and appeared to be _snapping _at each other. A very flustered shop attendant asked them carefully if they were third years. The girls all shook their heads, and the attendant let out a string of thanks before pointing them towards the first year section.

Both Brittany and Santana finished their shopping fairly quickly; the first year's books were all in a bundle, but Quinn took a little longer since she also had to get her brother's books, which were scattered all over the shop. Brittany and Santana offered to help, but Quinn shook them off and said it was easier this way, as to not lose them.

At that moment, Sam walked in and spotted the girls. He smiled and greeted Brittany with a huge hug, as if he hadn't seen her for days, not fifteen minutes. Brittany laughed and ruffled his hair affectionately, as Santana pointed him towards the first year books, smiling. Sam smiled dopily at her.

"I'm gonna go see if Quinn needs any help getting Peter's books!" he said cheerily, ignoring both girls' protests that Quinn had refused their help, and was likely to refuse his.

_You know what, _Santana thought; _He's not a bad guy. Maybe I should cut him a break since we'll probably be classmates. _

Santana broke out of her thoughts to find Brittany deeply engrossed in a book, _'100 Ways to Attract Unicorns'_. She grinned at her best friend.

Brittany must have seen it, because she glanced up. She smiled back, that soft, sweet smile that Santana had only ever seen Brittany give her. She wondered idly if it was saved especially for her, and the thought made the ever-present, Brittany-induced butterflies flutter.

"You are adorable," Santana gushed.

Brittany blushed lightly.

"Well, well, looks like we've got ourselves two little lesbos, Azimio."

The girls turned to find two intimidatingly large boys around their age. One of them, the black one, was cracking his knuckles menacingly.

"Maybe they'd like to taste my fists, that'll _straighten _them out," The black one took a step forward, a menacing sneer present.

Before either girl could comprehend what that meant, the second boy reached forward and pushed Brittany away from Santana. No one noticed the small stack of books behind Brittany's legs.

There was a moment when everything paused. Santana's eyes honed in on Brittany's head coming _dangerously_ close to the corner of a nearby table. She narrowly missed it, and ended up sprawled out across the floor of the bookshop. Santana was torn between beating the crap out of these two and rushing to Brittany's side.

Sensing her hesitation to face them, the boys chuckled.

It was enough.

"Let me make one thing very clear," Santana whipped her head towards the pair, walking up to them threateningly, and commanded them in a low voice.

"If you touch her again, if you harm a single hair on her head, one _single_ hair," she lowered her voice even further. "I will personally end you." The boys looked entirely taken aback at her aggression, glancing swiftly at one other. They nodded in synch, before narrowing their eyes and starting forward.

"Hey!" a voice yelled out. Santana, who had briefly closed her eyes in anticipation of a punch, quickly snapped them open.

The voice belonged to a thin Asian boy, who was now standing in between her and the bullies.

"I would suggest leaving here right now. Walk away. Don't want to be suspended before school even starts, do you?" he asked calmly, one eyebrow quirked.

At the same moment, she could hear Sam walking up to where Brittany lay, panting heavily.

"Brittany! Oh my God, what happened?" He nearly yelled. Brittany just pointed wordlessly at the boys. Sam was up in an instant, moving toward the boys angrily.

"Is there a problem?" A third voice echoed next to Santana. She turned to see Puck.

The boys, seeing they were outnumbered, quickly decided to exit the store.

Sam turned to the new boy and extended his hand. "Sam Evans." He said, smiling as always.

"Mike Chang." The boy returned his smile quickly. "Thanks for defending my sister and her friend, that was-"

Santana decided it was fine to withdraw from this conversation, and practically jogged over to where Brittany sat, propped against a bookshelf, holding her head tenderly. Santana took one look at her and nearly burst into tears.

Brittany already had a bruise forming on the wrist she had thrown out to break her fall. Santana tenderly lifted her best friend's arm and kissed the dark area. Brittany looked at Santana with her small smile and nothing but trust and… something else Santana rarely saw there. She wondered what it could be.

Santana shook her head a bit to clear it. Still concerned for her friend, she traced her fingers all over Brittany's head, trying to find the bump to kiss it better. Brittany giggled as Santana enthusiastically messed her hair up. Suddenly she winced.

Santana wasn't sure if it was Brittany or herself who had made the noise, but she had found the bump on Brittany's head- and it was easily the size of a snitch.

"_Britt_" Santana breathed out, tears returning to her eyes.

"It's okay," Brittany said to Santana, warmly. "It feels better." Santana looked at her questioningly. "You know, now that you're here." Santana smiled softly at her injured friend.

She wanted to protect her, always, from bullies, and disease, and death, and everything in between. Was that really such a terrible thing to want?

Santana leaned slightly behind her friend and did the one thing her Mama had done when she was a little baby; kissed the places that hurt. It always worked on her, and she never ever wanted Britt to be in any pain.

A little while later, the group sat down to eat at The Leaky Cauldron. Maribel Lopez had fixed the bump on Brittany's head in about three seconds flat, but that didn't stop Santana from constantly fussing over her, and Quinn constantly worrying her hands. She was so guilty she had left the two of them alone.

After nearly an hour, Sam turned quietly to the three girls. "Quinn." He started, "Stop feeling bad. There was no way you could've seen this happening. It wasn't your fault. I wasn't there either." Quinn looked down at her plate and nodded slightly. "Santana." He looked at her quasi-sternly for a moment, and said, "Britt is fine. You're worrying yourself into a worse state than even she's in." Santana smiled at his words.

"Okay guys; are we all ready to get wands?" Nancy piped up merrily.

Four young heads nodded enthusiastically.

"We figured we'd let you guys get wands before pets, so that way we'll be able to bring them home straight away," Judy smiled.

The quartet joyfully took off immediately down the alleyway. Brittany took Santana's hand and cheerfully pulled the girl after her, Santana gladly walking behind.

Brittany, forever the fastest of their group, reached the windows first and peered inside. "Mom, someone's already inside!"

"That's okay, love, we'll just wait inside until they're done." Her mother patiently responded. "It's much too hot outside."

The kids followed their mothers through the door.

Once everyone was in, there was hardly enough standing room for all of them inside the tiny shop. Santana sat on the ledge of the window and placed a giggling Brittany on her lap. Sam leaned casually against the only wall that wasn't covered by wands, in between the window and a very spindly chair. Everything was dusty in the shop, the walls no exception. It let out a puff of dust at the pressure.

This left Quinn to stand awkwardly in the center of the room, as the moms were all clustered around the chair.

There was a very small girl their age inside, and, judging by the pile of wands on the counter, she had been here a while.

Hearing the bell ring upon their entrance into the shop, the young girl finished with the wand she was testing and pivoted to latch onto the person who was closest to her. Poor Quinn didn't even see it coming.

"Hello there! My name is Rachel Barbra Berry; it's simply a pleasure to meet you. Is this your first year at Hogwarts, also? I'm so excited! I can't wait to be sorted. I wonder what house I'll be in. I've done a little research and it appears I am the best match for Slytherin House, I am a highly ambitious person, you see. What house do you foresee yourself becoming a part of? Oh, and isn't it a shame that first years can't be on their house Quidditch teams? I think it's a downright crime. At the very least we should be allowed our own brooms." The girl rambled.

Sensing she would continue the conversation- if you could even call it that, it almost appeared as if Rachel was berating Quinn- the poor girl interrupted the flow of Rachel's monologue by shaking her hand.

"Hi, Rachel. I'm Quinn Fabray. I am in my first year. It's nice to meet you as well."

Rachel positively beamed at this. Quinn smiled back at her in return, until they heard someone clear their throat.

A very wrinkly old man stood behind the counter, slightly smiling at them all. He held two more wands in his hand.

"Ms. Berry," he started, "Your wand will most likely be one of these two. Remember, the wand chooses the wizard, so try to stop- erm- forcing the wands to play along, shall we?"

Rachel nodded, gaze falling to the ground almost sheepishly.

The old man, who they gathered was Mr. Ollivander, passed Rachel the first wand.

"Now, then. I feel a bit more strongly about this wand, so if you will, try it out first. Spruce, Dragon Heartstring, 11 inches, slightly flexible. Give it a go."

Rachel took the light-colored wand a bit timidly, perhaps mindful of all the strangers in the room. She then took a breath, shook her shoulders slightly, and raised her head high with a dazzling smile.

Santana wondered idly who she was trying to impress.

Rachel took another breath, and, still with the ridiculous smile on her face, raised her wand.

The room became warm suddenly, as light shined from the corners and crevices of the room, and the wand let out a small spark that burst into several smaller, tinier sparks.

Everyone in the room applauded, impressed by the display.

Sam even let out a wolf whistle.

Ecstatic, Rachel turned and curtsied to her new friends.

"Well!" Mr. Ollivander chuckled, "It would appear that all you needed was an audience! How appropriate for this wand and, no doubt, yourself."

Rachel smiled again and reached into her wallet for the coins she would need. She reached for her wand in awe, and then turned to Quinn.

"It was very nice meeting you; I look forward to our time together at Hogwarts."

Quinn smiled softly back at her, and with that, Rachel was out the door.

"Are all four of you here for new wands?" Mr. Ollivander inquired.

"Yes, the four of them will be at Hogwarts this year." Santana's mom answered.

"Splendid! Now, who would like to go first?"

Santana lightly squeezed Brittany's hip in question, silently offering her to go first. Brittany subtly shook her head in response.

"I'll go!" Sam cheerfully volunteered.

The girls nodded as he stepped forward a bit nervously.

"You look rather familiar." Mr. Ollivander tilted his head to one side to study Sam.

"Ahh," He said after a minute, "You are the Evans boy, are you not?"

Sam nodded.

"Of course you are. I was so very saddened to hear of your parents' deaths. My condolences."

Sam's head hung slightly.

"Which is your wand arm, Mr. Evans?" Sam held out his right arm, and Mr. Ollivander pulled out a tape measure that went to work right away, taking every measurement of Sam that one could possibly need.

"Now, I suppose you were too young to remember what your parents' wands looked like," Mr. Ollivander called from the back shelves, "But rest assured they were both very strong wands for two very strong wizards. I'm sure you will follow in their footsteps. Here we are."

He returned to the front of the shop carrying a single wand box in his hands.

"Try this one, Mr. Evans. Your father favored a Mahogany wand, and your mother's was excellent for charm work, and this one marries the two. Mahogany and Unicorn Hair, ten and a quarter inches. Rather stiff."

He gestured at Sam to go on, but as soon as the wand was lifted, it was taken out of Sam's hands. "No, that's not right." said Ollivander thoughtfully.

He peered at Sam again, narrowing his eyes. He seemed to have decided whatever had been puzzling him, for he cocked an eyebrow one moment and took off the next.

Sam turned around and made eye contact with his sister, widening his eyes as if to say "_This guy is crazy". _Brittany covered her mouth to stifle her laughter. She felt Santana smile into her shoulder.

Mr. Ollivander was back in no time, already opening the box and presenting the wand with a flourish to Sam.

"This one should suit you well," he started, "It's another strong wood, Cedar, and it has a core of Unicorn Hair. Eleven and a half inches and flexible. Give it a wave." Sam gave a slight wave to the wand and immediately there was a warm light, the same that happened for Rachel's wand. There was a bouquet of wilting flowers on the front desk that straightened up and became a brighter color. Sam turned excitedly as the girls clapped, enthralled, and Brittany let out a "Yay Sammy!"

"Well!" Mr. Ollivander exclaimed "It's been a very long time since a wand was found that quickly, you must have a very strong sense of who you are. Congratulations, Mr. Evans."

Brittany's mother stepped forward. "I'll be buying his wand, but I also have another one in need of a wand this year." Nancy nodded towards Brittany, who skipped forward merrily. "So I'd like to purchase them at the same time, if that's alright."

"Why, Nancy Donaldson. I remember you. Let's see, Maple, Dragon Heartstring, twelve inches, nice and supple, am I correct?" Mrs. Pierce nodded.

"If I'm not mistaken, you married August Pierce?" She nodded again. "Excellent, excellent." He turned his attention to Brittany.

"I can imagine that you're a rather unique individual. I'm sure finding you a wand will be just as exciting." Brittany grinned at him.

Mr. Ollivander snapped his fingers, cheerful at the proposition of a challenging wand search, and the tape measure sprang back to life. He turned and started pulling boxes from the nearest shelf. He placed about six boxes in front of Brittany, who tried all of them with the same frustrating result.

The wand maker, however, happily went about pulling more wands off of shelves. After Brittany's tenth wand, Mr. Ollivander folded his hands against his chest in thought. "Ms. Pierce, I have one small test I would like to perform, is that alright with you?"

Brittany shook her head, eager to get on with finding her wand.

Mr. Ollivander produced a wand from inside his cloak. The group could only assume it was his own wand, because soon he was pressing the tip of it against Brittany's chest.

"Hey!" Santana started forward, fists curled, eyes glaring at the old man. She stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to find Quinn, eyes slightly narrowed but intently focused on Brittany. She also saw that Sam had his brand new wand out, although he probably wouldn't have been able to do much more than shoot a few sparks out of it. Santana focused back on Brittany.

If Mr. Ollivander noticed her outburst, he said nothing. Santana was glad for that fact. The only thing any different from before was that Mr. Ollivander's lips had become slightly thinner.

There was now a very slight glow coming from where the tip of the wand met Brittany's chest. None of the parents were moving in alarm, however, so the kids reasoned that there wasn't cause to panic.

That didn't stop Santana from glaring, of course.

It was over in a few moments, Mr. Ollivander pulling back with an attentive gleam in his eye.

"Ms. Pierce," he finally said, "Can you speak any other languages?"

"I don't think so, sir." Brittany said innocently.

"Hm." Mr. Ollivander replied. "Do not be surprised if you end up doing so in the future." He smiled cryptically at her and danced into the back room.

He returned a moment later, carrying only a single wand with him.

"This should do it. Rather unusual combination. I only carry a few wands of this wood at a time. Young wizards rarely earn these wands. We only have three or so in stock. Apple wood is a highly rare wand wood, and that coupled with Unicorn Hair will make quite the distinct wand. It is twelve inches long, and very bendy. Let's see what it thinks of you."

He passed her the unusually colored wand. Warm light filled the space for a third time, and this time, a small bird flew from the end of Brittany's wand, let out a few notes before bursting into a cloud of glitter.

Santana, Quinn and Sam stood with their mouths hanging open.

Sam recovered first, grinning and clapping madly. Santana and Quinn quickly followed.

Brittany ran straight into Santana's arms for a hug. Santana pulled her close to whisper in her ear "See? I told you. You're _amazing_." Brittany pulled back and smiled widely at her.

Brittany leaned in for another hug, and Santana glanced up to see Mr. Ollivander staring at them curiously. He met her eyes before looking around his shop to his wands.

Brittany's mom paid the fourteen galleons required for the two wands with a smile that was becoming of their entire family. Santana realized suddenly that she didn't want to be around on a day when the Pierces were frowning.

Brittany gave a slight tap to Santana's back, encouragingly pushing her towards the shop's counter and shopkeeper.

Santana wasn't quite sure what to make of Mr. Ollivander. He seemed to know what he was doing, but then he had to ruin it by totally feeling Brittany up.

_Okay, maybe not feeling her up. But it was still pretty fishy! _She reasoned to herself.

"Why, you're left-handed! You rarely see any of your kind, these days." Mr. Ollivander said after Santana offered her left arm, begrudgingly, to be measured.

Mr. Ollivander paid no attention to the storm in Santana's eyes, saying "You must be a Lopez. Your father favored a willow wand, Unicorn hair, rather supple. He uses it for healing, correct?"

Santana nodded. "That's what I thought. And Maribel, you had an ebony wand, Dragon Heartstring, fairly stiff, yes?"

Maribel confirmed it. "Those were both quite, ah… _fiery _wands." Ollivander glanced at Santana's mother in the corner, a twinkle in his eye. "Glad to see some things have not changed," Ollivander said, jovially. Maribel blushed and glanced at the ground.

This action was so rarely seen by Santana that her mouth immediately dropped. At it again, the tape-measure seized the opportunity and measured the height and width of her mouth before Santana had time to compute what had happened.

"Enough!" Ollivander said brusquely before laying the wands down on the counter. "Give these a try, Ms. Lopez. Go on, one by one."

Santana did as he asked, carefully weeding her way through the wands until she reached the seventh and last wand before her.

As soon as Santana raised the wand, the now-familiar light glowed around the shop. Santana's wand let out a great gust of air. It was almost as if the wand were sighing, like it had waited a long time to find its rightful owner. It even snuffed out the lights in the shop.

Mr. Ollivander quickly swept his own wand through the air, and the lamps were rekindled.

"How interesting. What a bizarre combination, this one. I believe it's pretty clear that you will surprise us all, Ms. Lopez. It is said that the blackthorn tree produces the sweetest berries after the hardest frosts. Take that as you will. Combined with Dragon Heartstring, this wand will certainly serve you well through your darkest hours, whatever they may be." He nodded at her, and Santana's mother stepped forward to place the seven galleons on the counter.

Quinn's mother stepped forward and placed the required galleons in front of Mr. Ollivander, saying that she would be paying upfront so that the group could leave right after Quinn found a wand.

"I remember you, too." Mr. Ollivander said, nodding. "Fabray, you say? Are we talking of Russell Fabray?" Judy and Quinn both nodded. "You used to be called Carver, yes?" Judy nodded a second time.

"So, Ms. Fabray," he started, oddly not mentioning her parents' wands, "Would you acquiesce to the same test I gave your friend before?"

"Yes sir that would be fine." Quinn said seriously.

Raising his wand, Mr. Ollivander put the tip on Quinn's temple.

Santana, still slightly freaked out by the action, reached for Brittany's hand, running her thumb over her knuckles reassuringly. Brittany squeezed her hand and gave her a small smile in return.

Mr. Ollivander removed his wand fairly quickly. "Hm." He uttered as he walked away.

Quinn must have already tried thirty wands, and while the group was frustrated and intrigued as to why the process was taking so long, Mr. Ollivander seemed as happy as a clam.

"Tricky customer? How delightful!" He walked back into the main room with about five more boxes.

Quinn groaned under her breath. Both Santana and Brittany giggled at that. At the sound, Brittany's wand began producing multi-colored bubbles. Everyone was fascinated until a sudden "Aha! This may be the one!" came from Mr. Ollivander in the background. The bubbles stopped abruptly.

Mr. Ollivander was pulling out a beautiful honey-colored wand, with dark brown streaks visibly running through it. To put it simply, the wand was beautiful.

"Elm and Phoenix feather. Twelve inches. Pliable. Give it a wave." Mr. Ollivander said, reverent.

As soon as Quinn touched the wand, the room lit up, brighter than ever before. When she firmly had a hand on it and raised it above her head, her wand let out three fireworks, blue, silver and gold.

Charmed, even Mr. Ollivander clapped. "Lovely! An elegant wand for an undoubtedly elegant young lady." He gave a slight bow of his head, which Quinn returned in thanks. As he was packaging her wand, he started chuckling. "You know, in all my years, I don't think I have ever sold two brother wands on the same day. What a remarkable day."

Quinn received her wand cautiously, thinking over what Mr. Ollivander had just said.

"Mr. Ollivander," she started, "who owns my wand's brother?"

Mr. Ollivander chuckled in response.

"That's for me to know and you to find out. Never fear, you will know quite clearly if you ever try to duel him at in any of your classes." He smiled down at her.

"So it's a boy? Who goes to Hogwarts? At least that's a start!" Quinn said eagerly.

Mr. Ollivander simply winked.

With that, Mr. Ollivander bid them all a good day and bowed them from the shop.

* * *

Brittany took Sam's offered arm, Santana walking next to her and Quinn on Sam's other side.

"What an interesting dude," Sam commented first.

"Interesting is certainly one way to describe it," Quinn giggled.

"I thought he was creepy. Like, why did he only do his wand telling spell thing on you two?" Santana said stiffly, pointing to Brittany and Quinn. "Totally weird."

"He may have been, but just imagine for a moment all of the interesting people we're sure to meet at our time at Hogwarts. Surely he won't be the most interesting one." Brittany said logically.

Santana beamed at her.

"Well," Quinn thought, "When he put his wand to my head, it was almost like he was trying to tell what my thoughts were. Not specifically, but, like, what the overall theme of them was? It's kind of hard to explain."

"No, totally." Brittany said. "That happened to me too. Except when he touched my heart, it was like this overwhelming happy sensation. It felt like I could do anything because I was so hopeful."

Sam lightly ruffled her hair. "That's because you've got a heart of gold, B-money."

Santana rolled her eyes at the pair. "I still thought he was a little weird." She said, shrugging.

The kids laughed and entered the pet shop, Santana holding the door this time. An explosion of bird calls and monkey cries greeted them with a gust of what smelled pungently like animal droppings and straw.

"Ladies first," Sam said playfully, stepping aside.

Santana wrinkled her nose and stepped into the room that was glowing with hundreds of eyes.

They emerged almost half an hour later, the journey home taken with three adults, three primping owls, one exceedingly large cat, and four very happy, very tired youngsters.

* * *

**A/N: ****So! What do we think? Is it worth continuing? Please let me know your opinions! I have a ton of ideas for this fic, and I would totally love to write them down, but it would be reassuring to know if someone liked it! I spent weeks trying to get everything perfect for the first chapter of this, I hope it was worth it! **

**Once again, thanks to my awesome Beta shanpagne16, you rock! **

**Please R/R! Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey guys! Well, here we are. Back to this story. A few changes about this chapter. The first: this story takes place during the story of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. However, being that this is Brittana's first year, they have to be sorted, and they need a sorting hat song. In the book, Harry misses the sorting hat ceremony, so he isn't there for what, in this case would be, Brittana's sorting ceremony. That being said, I cannot write clever analogies that rhyme, so I lifted the sorting hat song from the fourth book. Note: NEITHER OF THESE BOOKS ARE MINE. This sorting hat song is not mine! Glee is not mine, etcetera, etcetera, you guys know the drill. **

**Secondly, it appears I have lost my Beta. /sadface. So, unless there's someone who is dying to beta this for some reason, this will most likely be un-beta'd from now on. This leads one to conclude that there are going to be many mistakes, and this is one thing that I can assure you; _these _are one thing that are totally my own. **

**Last but certainly not least, thank you so much to the two 'Guest' reviewers! Your reviews meant so much! Pushed out the ending of this chapter for you two, and everyone who alerted and favorited and PM'd me. You guys rock. On with the show!**

* * *

Chapter Two 

The month and a half before school began passed in a blur for the four pre-teens. Most of their days were spent soaking up the sun by their local lake. Sam and Brittany had swimming races every day. And every day, Brittany would somehow convince Santana to join her in the water. Quinn even begrudgingly partook in the water sports occasionally. Needless to say, after a month of doing this, all four were tanner, and Brittany, Quinn, and Sam were all three shades lighter blonde. The four were now also excellent water Quidditch players.

When the kids weren't outside, they were constantly playing with their new pets. Brittany had decided to name her new, ridiculously fat monstrosity she called a cat Lord Tubbington. No one knew the exact reason why. It seemed Lord Tubbington was greatly opposed to all forms of exercise, save one. He just loved to annoy the shit out of Santana's owl Archimedes.

At the end of the day, exhausted from swimming, the kids usually camped out at one of the houses and watched movies. Since Brittany's grandmother hadn't known she was a witch until she went to school, Brittany's mom had grown up among muggle T.V. and classics. In return, she raised her kids on Disney movies.

So here they were, enjoying one last round of movies before heading to Platform 9 ¾ in the morning. They decided the last movie night would be at the Pierce's, because Brittany's mom made the best snacks.

Just as they were about to put on the last movie of the night, there was a tap on the window.

Santana raced over to let her owl in. It swooped through the window and landed on the table with a graceful tumbling stop.

Quinn took out the message and read it. "Daughter, please come over in the morning to say goodbye to your father and take your things. Love from, someone who's not Dad and not trying to bribe you with a monster breakfast."

"Your parents are so funny, S." she stated with a chuckle.

"Yeah, yeah, they're comedic geniuses." Santana stated with a chuckle.

Brittany moved to grab a quill and ink for Santana, and when they had their backs turned, the cat made a move.

Lord Tubbington silently pounced on the back of the couch where Archimedes had flown to, awaiting his letter to return home. Lord Tubbington stalked closer and closer to the owl until Quinn turned and gasped, drawing the attention of everyone. Santana yelled "Archie!" at the same time Brittany yelled "LT!" and both animals were startled.

Archie took off in a loop around the room, and Lord Tubbington took a great leap after the owl, thankfully unsuccessful in capturing him. He continued to make crazed circles around the couch, looking for ways to leap on the bird, until Brittany captured him in her arms.

"Gotcha!" she exclaimed triumphantly. She turned to walk up the stairs. "Bad kitty! Very bad kitty! I wish you'd stop trying to eat San's owl! Now I'm going to have to put you in timeout." She pouted to the cat. She was back in no time, rubbing the few fur strands from her shirt.

"Sorry guys," she started, "I don't know why he likes Archie so much, San."

Santana, who had finished writing her response and attaching it to Archimedes' foot, was stroking her owl's ruffled feathers down with soothing murmurs. The bird took a great shudder, affectionately pecked Santana's hand twice and flew out the still-open window.

"See, he's fine, Britt." She smiled warmly at her friend.

Seeing she was still troubled, Santana reached for Brittany and ran a hand over her arm.

"C'mon, B," she whispered, "I wants to get mah cuddle on with you."

Brittany snickered and followed Santana as she led the way to the couch. The girls easily folded into each other, with Quinn curling in to Santana's side and Sam into Brittany's. And that's how they watched the movie.

* * *

When morning came, Santana was the first to wake. All she could smell was this beautiful flowery smell that reminded her of Brittany. Hm. That was strange. She felt a puff of air on her neck, like a breath. _Wait. _

Blearily, Santana struggled to open her eyes. She had to quickly pull her lips into her mouth to keep herself from laughing.

Once she could make out shapes clearly, she almost wanted to take a picture. The kids had apparently fallen asleep on the couch, because she could hear that annoying DVD menu song in the background. They were literally one large entanglement of limbs. Santana had been correct in thinking of Brittany earlier, because the tall blonde had an arm and a leg thrown around Santana in a koala hug, face nuzzled into Santana's neck. Santana's face was buried in her hair, which must be where the flower smell was coming from. Quinn had somehow ended up upside down, with her torso mostly hanging off the seat of the couch, one arm thrown across Santana's legs and legs folded up and over the back of the couch, and simultaneously the leg that Brittany had thrown over Santana, as well. Sam, however, was in what could only be described as a sideways superman pose. His arms were reaching towards the corner by Quinn, head buried in her stomach. His torso and stomach were leaning lightly against Santana's legs, but his weight was on his hips, so it wasn't that uncomfortable for her. One of his legs was thrown out over the table that was in front of the couch. The other was buried in the complete opposite corner from his hands.

They looked like four Mr. Potato Heads were thrown into a blender and someone jammed a finger down on _frappe_.

Santana could tell that they should all be up by now. The shadows the sun was currently casting on the wall in the basement were proof enough.

She heard lightly treading feet walking down the stairs, but stopping half way. She quickly closed her eyes.

"Oh _how precious._" She heard Brittany's mom say from somewhere above her. She went back upstairs and returned a minute later with two different cameras, and several snaps went off.

She knew one camera was a wizard one, and one was a muggle one. She couldn't help but smile that there was multiple forms of evidence that this had happened.

Santana opened her eyes slowly and saw Ms. Pierce give her a knowing look.

_Busted. _She thought with a chuckle.

"Good Morning, Santana," She winked, "I thought it might be time for you and Quinn to go say goodbye to your families before we heard off today."

"Sure thing, Mrs.… Nancy." Santana smiled.

Nancy leaned down over Sam to wake him up, as he was lying on top of everyone.

As soon as his aunt touched him, Sam jerked awake.

"I'm up, I'm awake!" He let out loudly.

This roused Quinn. "Sam… why… too loud." She mumbled.

Santana and Mrs. Pierce chuckled.

"Quinn, you'd better be leaving, you know your father has to work and your mother has Wizengamot jury duty, dear, so it's best you say goodbye!"

Quinn grumbled but grudgingly opened her eyes. As soon as she did, she clasped a hand to her head and groaned loudly.

"I suspect you have a rather large headache? I'm sure Mr. P will be glad to fix it upstairs." Nancy smiled down at the girl.

Quinn hopped off the couch and lumbered up the stairs after Mrs. Pierce.

Sam was doing cat stretches in one corner of the couch, and Brittany was sound asleep against Santana. Santana started running her fingers through her best friend's hair.

"Britt," she whispered, "I'm gonna have to go soon and say goodbye to my dad. I'm sorry but you're going to have to let me go."

She made a move to get up, but was immediately pulled back by Brittany.

"San," Brittany said, "Please stay. I don't know when I'm going to be able to cuddle with you at school." She pouted up at Santana. Santana rolled her eyes at the sight of it.

"Fine," she said, "But only for five minutes! Then I really do have to go, B." Brittany happily accepted this.

Five minutes turned into ten, then fifteen, and twenty minutes later, Mrs. Pierce was back.

A flash went off.

The girls rolled their eyes at the sight of the camera back in Mrs. Pierce's hand.

"Let's go, girls! We need to get moving!" she reprimanded them playfully.

"And, Samuel! I thought I told you to wake up!" she poked her nephew where he had fallen back asleep on the floor. Sam dutifully and blindly followed Mrs. Pierce up the stairs.

As soon as her mom was out of sight, Brittany leaned over and gave Santana a giant smack of a kiss on the cheek. Santana's cheeks turned rosy.

She hugged Brittany one last time, saying "Don't worry, B. We still have the whole trip to Hogwarts to hang out today. And, I promise, we'll find time to see each other at school. My parents said that the Slytherin common room was underneath the castle, by the dungeons, but we could always make someplace our own? Like the library or something?" Brittany sniffled and nodded.

"See you in a bit." And with that, Santana was off.

* * *

She reached her house in record time. Her parents were in the kitchen making a big, Latin breakfast. She could hardly wait, she was famished. She pecked her parent's cheeks and darted up the stairs to bring her suitcase down.

Once she was in her room, though, she sat down on the bed and looked around. She was going to miss this room. She knew that she would come back to visit often, however, and that thought made leaving a bit easier. So, rolling her suitcase behind her and Archimedes' cage in hand, she shut her door.

She sat down at the table after depositing her things and dug into her food. Her father was reading the newspaper next to her, just like always, and her mother was reading her fashion magazine. Breakfasts were the quietest meal of the Lopez house. None of the three were morning people, so they preferred to spend it in silence and enjoy catching up on their own things. Unlike the Pierce family, where breakfast was always a loud, happy affair, just like everything to do with the Pierces.

It was this that Santana thought of while plowing through her sausages, waffles and eggs.

Her father folded his paper and picked up his coffee, looking her over with his gentle eyes.

"So, Santanita," he began, "Are you excited to wear the green and silver?" he asked with a grin.

"Si, Papi." She replied with a smile.

"Now, Carlos," Maribel reprimanded, "Santana may end up in another house. You are so smart, Mija." Her mother said fondly.

"That is very true." Her father warmly smiled. "Just don't tell your Abuela if you do!" Both adults chortled in laughter.

Santana joined them, because it was pretty obvious to her that she would end up in Slytherin.

Before she could contemplate the matter any further, there was a knock on the door. Santana darted to answer it and was nearly tackled by Brittany.

"San, San, it's time to go!" she exclaimed in glee.

"Okay, I just have to say goodbye to my dad." She said, and turned to find her father already waiting, arms stretched out to scoop her into a hug. She ran to him and clung tightly to his waist. He leaned down and kissed her on the head.

"Te amo, Santanita. Do well in school this year, study hard, alright? We will miss you very much." He hugged his daughter again, tightly.

"I'll miss you too, Papi." Santana said in a very tiny voice.

"You'd better write often, young lady!" her father wagged a finger dramatically at her.

"Yes, Papi. I will." Santana said, smiling.

"Alright! You two need to go before I stop you. Have a good semester, Santana! Be safe, por favor!" One final hug and the Lopez women were out the door.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Pierce were coming with them today. It was good that they were, because they had a corral of children to keep up with and see safely onto the train.

They were to be using floo to get as close to King's Cross as they could. The Pierce's had an elderly Aunt who lived about three blocks east of the station, so once they got there, they would just walk.

Mrs. Pierce went first with Rosie, to greet Aunt Mildred. Mr. Pierce went next with Brittany, then Sam with Santana, Quinn with Peter, and finally Mrs. Lopez.

After a few short minutes on small talk and a lecture on how shaggy Sam's hair was getting, the group made way to leave the small apartment.

Mr. and Mrs. Pierce led the group, swinging Amy between them as they walked. Brittany and Quinn followed, arms linked, then Peter telling Mrs. Lopez about his career plans, and Santana and Sam, with Santana mostly listening as Sam talked about how freaky it must've been last year with that giant snake all over the place.

Santana violently shuddered. She wasn't afraid of snakes, or anything. Though imagining a giant snake, slithering its way through _plumbing pipes_… she couldn't think of many other things that were creepier than that.

Before anyone knew it, they were at King's cross station. Weaving through the many muggles, they reached platforms nine and ten in minutes.

Mr. Pierce pulled them aside.

"Okay, kids," he started in a low voice, "Here's the deal. That platform leads to the Hogwarts express. You have to go through it to get there. Now, I'm going to go through with this luggage cart and Rosie, and the rest of you follow me, alright? If you're really nervous about it, just run at the wall, it'll be over faster that way. Is everyone ready to go?"

The group nodded. Mr. Pierce picked Rosie up and placed her on top of the trunks, wheeled around, and broke into a run. He was followed shortly by Peter.

Sam, trying to be brave, shook his shoulders a little before swiftly walking towards the wall. Seconds later, he too, vanishes.

The three girls decide to run at the wall together.

The broke into a trot, and when they were moments away, both Quinn and Brittany closed their eyes and held their breaths.

Suddenly they were on the other side of the wall, staring up at a brilliantly red train, steam billowing everywhere. There were people all over the platform, hugging their family goodbye and lugging their trunks onto the train. Mr. Pierce waved them over.

Peter was already changed into his robes. Sam was staring at him in awe as he pinned his prefect badge to his chest.

As the mothers reached them, Peter spoke up. "I hate to say goodbye already," he frowned, "But I'm in charge of my younger house-mates, so I have to find them and help them with their things." He shook hands with Mr. Pierce, high-fived Rosie and waved goodbye to the mothers. "I'll catch you later, Q." he smiled at his sister.

Quinn quickly said that she would go on the train to save seats for everyone, so she hugged the parents and Rosie and climbed the steps to the train after her brother.

Sensing it was finally time to say goodbye, Santana turned to her mom. Her mother embraced her. "Santanita, remember what your father told you. Always study the hardest that you can, and always try your hardest, and we will always be proud of you. You can accomplish anything you set your mind to, Mija. I'm already so proud of you." She hugged her again.

"Gracias, Mama." Santana answered, tears in her eyes. "I'll miss you and Papi. Please send a lot of letters, okay?"

"Si, mi hija. Take care of yourself, and Quinn and Brittany, too." Santana smiled and kissed her mother on the cheek. She walked over to where Brittany and Mrs. Pierce were drying their eyes, and wrapped her arms around Mr. Pierce's neck. Mr. Pierce squeezed her back and she turned to hug Rosie, but found her in a death-like grip on Sam's leg. When she was able to wrestle her off, Sam threw her a grateful glance and walked over to hug his aunt goodbye.

Everyone finally broke apart and, after some struggling with the suitcases, everything and everyone was on board. They waved goodbye to their families as the train began to pull out of the station, building to a faster and faster pace before rounding a corner, effectively blocking their parents from sight.

* * *

The trio quickly found the apartment that contained Quinn in the center of the train. It already had Puck inside, and a darker girl they had never seen before. Everyone helped put the bags overhead, and sat down. The mystery girl introduced herself.

"Mercedes Jones. Alpha female, Star singer, Top dog, and I won't hesitate to get in your grill if you mess with my homies."

Santana instantly liked her.

"That being said, I actually really like new people, so as long as you don't mess with my friends, we're cool."

Sam was the first to offer his hand.

"Hi!" he said, charming smile intact. "I'm Sam Evans. It's really nice to meet you."

Santana was the second, saying "Santana Lopez, also top dog, also willing to cut anyone who messes with my peeps. I think we should be friends."

Mercedes grinned back.

"The name's Puck." He stuck out his hand to grab Mercedes', giving a very overdone kiss to the back of it. "But you can call me Puckasaurus." He wiggled his eyebrows.

Everyone laughed loudly at that, and the rest of the group introduced themselves to Mercedes.

The first hour flew by, and Puck was in the middle of telling a story (mainly to Mercedes) of how he wrestled his seventh-year neighbor last week and won, when a rather old, kind- looking witch knocked and opened their door.

"Hello, dears. Anything off the trolley?" she said.

Brittany jumped forward and tried to purchase everything she could see. When she realized she didn't have enough money for everything, she turned and pouted to Sam, who rolled his eyes and gave her the money she needed. She put the candy between them and they shared, occasionally throwing sweets into each other's mouths playfully.

When everyone else was seated, Mercedes turned to the pair.

"So, what's the story?" she asked, "When did you two become boyfriend and girlfriend?"

Sam nearly choked on the taffy he was eating, and Brittany cast a horrified look in Mercedes' direction.

"Oh my gosh, _EWW_." She stated.

"She's my sister!" Sam coughed. Laughter echoed happily around the cabin.

The train began to slow down.

"Awesome! We're almost there, then!" Puck pumped his fist into the air. "Oh, crap, I still need to change into my robes."

"That's what you get from talking the train ride away." Santana said, eyes rolling.

"Hang on, guys." Quinn said, looking up from her watch at the boys pulling robes on. "We can't possibly be there yet. Peter said it takes exactly five hours to get to Hogwarts by train, and we've only been on for four and a half."

Brittany shrugged. "Maybe he was wro-"

The train gave a sudden violent jolt, and instantly came to a stop.

Sam and Santana stuck their heads out of the door, looking to find a reason to explain what happened.

The train gave a second jolt, sending Santana flying back into Brittany, and Sam into Mercedes.

The lights flickered out, and there was total darkness until the emergency lights came on a few moments later. It only lasted mere seconds before the train was plunged into darkness again.

Quinn rubbed her sleeve over the window that had fogged up.

"Guys," she said, suddenly terrified, "There's something coming onboard the train."

Puck swore, Sam gripped his hair in anxiety, and Brittany clung to Santana.

"San… Santana, I'm really really scared." She whispered into her shoulder blade.

"Me too, Britt. But I won't let anyone near enough to hurt you, you know that, right?" She felt Brittany give a small nod.

The train gave another giant shudder and every student onboard screamed.

"Guys… what would be the reason for the window icing up?" Quinn called. Everyone glanced over to see, sure enough, icy tendrils climbing across the window pane.

Puck visibly shivered.

That drew everyone's attention away from the window and back to their cabin, where the air had grown so frigid that they could see their own breath.

Out of the very corner of her eye, Santana saw a shadow move into the cabin across from them. She pulled Brittany further behind her.

Suddenly there was a cloaked figure standing outside their door. At an excruciating pace, it opened their door.

They were not prepared in the slightest for what came next.

A sickly, green-grey hand, slimy and stinking and almost rotten grabbed the doorway and forced its body into the cabin. Puck and Quinn had their mouths open in silent screams, while the others were frozen in complete fear.

Santana wanted to get up. She wanted that thing, whatever it was, to be gone, pronto. But for some reason, she completely lost the motivation to move, the motivation to do anything but sit there. She felt utterly hopeless. Even if she could manage to stand, what would happen next? Did she honestly believe that she could fight off this... terrifying slimy green rotting corpse thing? Of course she didn't. She wasn't brave enough, or clever enough. She would never be able to protect Brittany. There was no hope. There was no reason to fight. She could sense her body growing limp against Brittany, her body starting to give up along with her mind.

And then, it was gone. A brilliantly white, glowing ball of light seemingly chased it away.

The six kids sat in silence, not even speaking when the lights came back on, or when they heard the engines kick back to life. In fact, no one spoke until a thin man with a thin moustache opened their door.

"S… Sir? What was that thing?" Brittany managed to pipe up.

"That was a dementor. Are you lot all first years?"

They nodded, and he shook his head, almost in remorse.

"Here, have some chocolate. I got it from the witch with the cart, after instructing her that it was for the benefit of all the students, she willingly gave it all to me. As for the dementor, well, I'm sure that will be explained up at the castle by Professor Dumbledore. I will be seeing you soon." With that, he walked out the door. They could hear him knocking on the compartment behind theirs.

The voice of the conductor echoed through the train. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your belongings on the train; they will be attended to later. Thank you." Santana was pleased to hear a slight tremor in his voice. Even the adults were afraid.

Puck finished pulling his robes on as they pulled into the station. The kids nibbled on the chocolate and all felt a bit better.

Once they were off the platform, Puck promptly left them to go locate Finn. They heard a gruff voice yelling "Firs' years! Firs' years, over here!" and walked towards the source, an extremely tall, extremely feral-looking man. He waited until it looked as though everyone in their year had joined them, yelled one last "Firs' years, follow me!" and turned to walk down a path. They walked for a few minutes before reaching the shore of some kind of body of water, which harbored a few dozen little boats. Santana turned to talk to Mercedes, but couldn't see her. She assumed she got lost in the crowd.

"Alright, clamber on'n. No more'n four to a boat." The giant yelled.

Brittany, Santana, Quinn, and Sam lumbered into the first one they saw. Everyone was still a bit shaken from the incident on the train.

Hagrid appeared to have noticed. "Well, what happened to you lot? You're a right sight quieter than any other group o' firs' years I've ever led up to the castle before."

Someone in a nearby boat must have informed him, because he blanched a moment later.

"Gallopin' Galleons!" he nearly shouted, "No wonder you lot are speechless. I'm sure Professor Dumbledore must have an explanation fer all o' this. Oh, mind yer heads through this ivy, and then you've got one more turn and you'll be able ter see the school."

The students ducked, and just beyond the next bend, they saw the castle. Hogwarts. It looked beautiful, the lights streaming from it reflected onto the night sky around it, illuminating the things and people inside it.

In no time at all, their boats touched shore in some kind of underground harbor and they all clambered off. They walked up the stairs after Hagrid, who stopped at a dark wooden door and waited for everyone to catch up. When the last student arrived, he raised his hand and rapped his knuckles against the door.

* * *

It took a few seconds for them to see who had opened it.

"Oh, I… er, I was expectin' Professor McGonagall, sir." Hagrid fumbled.

"Never fear, Hagrid!" the small wizard piped. "I am filling in for her. Now, students, follow me!" and he trotted up the stairs, everyone dutifully and mindfully following him.

He led them all the way past what the foursome assumed was the Great Hall, because it was loud and appeared to be packed with people when the door was pushed open slightly, to a small room a few corridors down.

"Now students, my name is Professor Flitwick, and I am the head of Ravenclaw house. Most of you, however, will know me better as your Charms professor. It is my great pleasure to welcome all of you to Hogwarts!

Now, in a few minutes, the sorting ceremony shall begin. What this means is that you will try on the sorting hat, and it will place you into the Hogwarts house it believes you are best suited for; Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, or my own house, Ravenclaw.

Your houses will be your teammates and your family in all sense of the words for the next seven years. If you disobey the rules, you will be deducted house points. However, if you perform impressive feats in class or elsewhere, you have the opportunity to earn them. The House with the most points at the very end of the year is rewarded the house cup.

I must be off now for a brief moment, but until then, please, make friends with those around you. You never know who may be your housemate!"

Sam, Brittany, Santana and Quinn all glanced at each other nervously. As the one with the older siblings, the others directed their questions to her.

"Quinn, when he says the sorting hat, what does that mean? Is it a hat- swapping thing?"

"Is it like that game with the cups, where they put a ball under one and mix it up so your head hurts and then you have to guess which one it's under?"

"Do we have to pull the name of our house out of a hat? That's dumb."

"Guys!" Quinn yelled. "I don't know! Seriously, my brothers didn't tell me any of this stuff. I'm already freaking out, can you stop yelling at me?"

The door to their room creaked open, and the short professor was back.

"Students, please form a single line against the wall!" he squeaked.

Brittany lassoed the other three into a quick group hug.

"Guys, we have to promise that no matter what house we all get into, even if we get into all four of them, that we still hang out, and are still best friends. Agreed?"

Everyone shook on it, and fell into place with the other first years.

Quinn stood behind that guy from the bookstore- Mark, wasn't that his name? Brittany stood behind her, then Santana, and finally Sam. They marched back out the door and back down the hallway until they reached the exquisitely carved, deeply gold doors and pushed through them.

Santana is breathless.

Never has she seen anything as beautiful as this in her life. The only thing she can see is the sky above her.

A thing about Santana is- thunderstorms have always calmed her. Ever since she can remember. The sound of the rhythmic thunder and rain had always soothed her, maybe because it reminds her of a fierce heartbeat, maybe because it reminds her of her own.

So seeing the sky in the great hall, cloudy and flashing and loudly clashing and the pitter-patter of rain, Santana is completely calmed.

She takes her eyes off the sky and looks around the room. There are candles hovering everywhere. There are several massive cauldrons of fire torches hanging from the walls. Spread evenly in the room is four great oaken tables, which she presumes are for each different house to sit at. It must be correct, because the table closest to her she can clearly see only blue and silver ties hanging from everyone at the table's necks. The Great Hall ends at the professor's table, which is immediately in front of a row of tall windows. In the center is Dumbledore, the spot to his immediate right vacant, and the spot two to his left vacant as well. She assumes one of them is for the tiny Professor Filibinky who led them into the hall. He places a ridiculously old hat on a three-legged stool, and walks away to watch it reverently. Santana gazes at it untrustingly. To her great surprise, the hat began to tear open into a flap, almost like a mouth. It began to sing.

_A thousand years or more ago, _

_When I was newly sewn, _

_There lived four wizards of renown, _

_Whose names are still well known: _

_Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor, _

_Fair Ravenclaw, from glen, _

_Sweet Hufflepuff, from valley broad, _

_Shrewd Slytherin, from fen. _

_They shared a wish, a hope, a dream, _

_They hatched a daring plan, _

_To educate young sorcerers_

_Thus Hogwarts School began. _

_While still alive they did divide _

_Their favorites from the throng, _

_Yet how to pick the worthy ones _

_When they were dead and gone? _

'_Twas Gryffindor who found the way, _

_He whipped me off his head _

_The founders put some brains in me _

_So I could choose instead! _

_Now slip me snug about your ears, _

_I've never yet been wrong, _

_I'll have a look inside your mind _

_And tell you where you belong! _

The hall burst into applause, Professor Dumbledore looking particularly impressed at the hat.

Professor Flipwart raised his hands to quiet the room, a large scroll in one.

"Now, students!" He pepped, "Once your name is called, step forward to sit on the chair and put on the hat. Once it has sorted you, please sit at your appropriate house table. Abrams, Arthur!"

The hat took a moment to decide, before yelling "HUFFLEPUFF!" and Arthur walked off to sit at a very cheerful table of people clapping for him.

Another boy was sorted into Hufflepuff, and Anderson, Blaine became the first Ravenclaw. The first Gryffindor came moments later, when Alexander, Constance stepped away from the hat.

A few people went; Santana vaguely recognized the girl Rachel from Ollivander's get sorted into Slytherin. Another girl was sorted into Slytherin before "Chang, Michael!" was called.

_Michael, his name is Mike. _Santana recalled. That's right. Almost as soon as the hat touched his head, it announced "GRYFFINDOR!"

There were about five kids after him, and Doyle, Shae was just being sorted into "HUFFLEPUFF!" When they called "Evans, Samuel!"

You could tell Sam was nervous by the way him fingers rubbed together as he walked up to the platform with the stool. Just as it had with Mike, the hat barely grazed his head before it let out a booming "GRYFFINDOR!"

Brittany, Quinn, and Santana all hollered out as Sam looked at them with a toothy grin.

They were so caught up in the commotion that they nearly missed the "Fabray, Lucille!" that had been called, and probably would have if not for the sharp intake of breath. Brittany reached over and squeezed Quinn's hand and Santana patted her on the shoulder as she shook her shoulders slightly and glided forward.

It didn't take the hat very long to decide Quinn's fate, either. After maybe four seconds of wearing it, an ear-splitting "RAVENCLAW!" echoed through the room. Brittany and Santana both jumped up and down, cheering.

Santana knew her time was winding down as she listened to "Flanagan, Rory" become a Hufflepuff.

Then came "Hart", "Hudson" became a Hufflepuff, "Hummel" a Gryffindor, "Israel", "Jackson", and "Jones, Mercedes!", their friend from the train, became a Gryffindor.

Finally a "Karofsky, David!" who was one of the boys she recognized as a bully from Diagon Alley, became a Slytherin, and as soon as he sauntered off, Professor Flitwick called out "Lopez, Santana!"

She was shaken out of her trance. She took a deep, shuddering breath, and instantly felt Brittany's hand in hers, squeezing and running her thumb over Santana's knuckles reassuringly. She moved forward with Santana for two steps, whispering "Remember we're friends forever, San." before giving a light squeeze and letting her hand fall.

Santana slowly, carefully walked over to where the hat lay, and as it lowered over her eyes, she thought _I honestly don't know where I'm supposed to go._

'_Ah, but you see, you don't have to. That is my job.' _

After recovering from the shock of the voice in her ear, she sat very still as the hat pondered over her.

'_Hm,' _it began, '_I see that your family is expecting you to be in Slytherin? I can tell that you would be just as well suited for Ravenclaw. You have a very bright mind.'_

Santana felt a burst of pride.

'_In fact, I think you have select elements from every house. How exceedingly rare. Well, which house would you want to be placed in _least_?'_

'_HUFFLEPUFF.'_ Santana answered immediately. _'It's a fine house for Brittany, just not for me.' _

'_No Hufflepuff. With that out of the way, and now weighing it, I have decided that you would be best if placed in _"GRYFFINDOR!"

The last word was yelled to the rest of the hall. As soon as the hat was taken away, she frantically searched until her eyes locked with Brittany's. The first moment she looked shocked, but on the second she was pointing to a table and mouthing the word '_sit_' to Santana.

In a daze, Santana stumbled forward to the table that was cheering for her. She sat down across from Sam, so grateful she at least had him. She widened her eyes at him, and when he returned the response and then half-smirked at her, some of her oncoming flare of panic was warded off.

Mercedes then scooted over until she was next to Santana and whispered "I'm glad we're housemates. I think we could be really good friends."

Santana only managed a weak smile in response, but Mercedes' statement helped a little more with her anxiety.

She heard a pair of twins, 'Miller' and 'Miller' be called, but tuned out for the other names, and probably would have missed out of Brittany if Sam hadn't sharply turned his head when "Phillips, Harmony!" was called and subsequently named as a "RAVENCLAW!".

Brittany walked forward when her name was pronounced, cheerful as always. She somehow managed to flash a look at Santana that withered her insides in the moments before the hat covered her baby blue eyes.

The hat took a particularly long time with Brittany. Sam nervously pulled at his hair, and she could see Quinn, a table over, chewing her nails rapidly. Santana herself was gripping her own thigh so tightly that she could feel the tingles that came with a lack of blood flow starting, when the hat finally opened its mouth.

"RAVENCLAW!" it hollered, and instantly Sam and Santana were on their feet cheering. When she spotted them, Brittany blushed and smiled, waving at them to sit down.

She faintly heard Puck being sorted into Slytherin before sitting down and taking a few deep breaths to calm herself. It was over. There would be no more stressing over where they would be placed, they finally knew.

Another girl eventually sat down next to Mercedes, and introduced herself as Hadeel Tarran. When the last person, another Gryffindor girl by the name of 'Zizes, Lauren', was finished being sorted, Professor Dumbledore stood to address the school.

It was at this time Santana noticed that the seats had been filled by the missing professors, one by Flitwomp, and the other by a very stern-looking witch. Sensing the witch's eyes turn to her table, Santana quickly averted her eyes to the Headmaster, who was stroking his silver beard thoughtfully, preparing for a speech.

"Welcome students, welcome to another year here at Hogwarts! You may not have noticed, but we have two new teachers joining our ranks this year! The first; Professor Lupin, who has consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. The second; our very own Rubeus Hagrid, who has graciously stepped up to be our new Care of Magical Creatures professor. Good luck to you, professors!"

"The second piece of news is in regards to what happened this afternoon on the train. The creatures that entered the train are called Dementors; they are the guards of the wizard prison Azkaban. They are here by Ministry decree, for… further protection from outside sources, but I must warm you not to cross them in any way." He surveyed the entire student body over the rims of his half-moon glasses.

"They do not take kindly to anyone who crosses them, and it is not in their nature to tell good from evil. They will only know when you are in their way. Now that the messy business has been attended to, the only thing left to say is: Dig in!" The professor stepped down, eyes twinkling in to the distance.

He clapped his hands, and instantly, mountains of food appeared.

Santana had never seen so much food in her life. They had all her favorites- corned beef and cabbage, a giant roasted turkey; they had four different types of pasta and three different salads, pizza- simply everything. This was going to be delicious.

* * *

Hours later, after trekking all the way up probably forty flights of stairs, they were in the Gryffindor common room. Looking around at her garnet and gold surroundings only cemented the fact that she had failed. It was a stark contrast to the blue-green she had expected to become accustomed to underneath the lake, where the Slytherin dorms were.

She didn't know what she was doing in Gryffindor. She was the least brave person she knew. She followed Hadeel, Lauren, Mercedes and Constance up the last few flights of stairs listlessly.

She threw her robes onto her chair, not bothering to fold them, and only said goodnight to Mercedes when the girls were calling out to each other in the dark room.

She pulled her heavy garnet comforter up to her neck and buried her nose into her pillow, thankful for the smell of fresh linen; anything to remind her of home. She would put off worrying for the morning.

Maybe she could ask that Professor Filibuster if she could switch into his house.

She buried her head further into the pillow, the last thing she was thinking of being Quinn and Brittany and flowers and beds and someone's arms where she would much rather be than this cold, unfamiliar bed.

* * *

**A/N: So! How's that for a sorting ceremony? Sorry if it was a bit dull, but it had to be done. What are you guys thinking about Santana's inability to remember Flitwick's name? Would you like that to continue? As a side note, start brainstorming who you want both Quinn and Sam to end up with! I'm honestly open to whatever for the two of them, so you guys can choose and let me know. **

**How did you all feel about this chapter? Excited to see some of your favorite characters? If you have a favorite HP character you would like me to incorporate, let me know! **

**R&R please! Thanks! You guys rock.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I'm terribly sorry that this chapter is so late. I know it's been like two weeks since I've updated, and I'm sorry it took me so long, and that this is about half the length of my other chapters. I wanted to get this out for you guys, so I stayed up through the night writing and editing for you guys. Keep in mind this is un-beta'd, but I tried to weed out as many mistakes as I could find. Thanks! I hope you like it!**

**Also, I don't own Glee or Harry Potter yet, but I shall tell you if/when that happens. :)**

Chapter 3 

When Santana woke up the next morning, it took her a few minutes to realize where she was. Once she did, she could only sink further into her pillow, muffling her loud groan in frustration.

There wasn't much she could do to change her fate now. The only thing she could do was grin and bear it. Thankfully she wouldn't have to face her family until the winter holidays, so she hoped that she would be comfortable enough to defend her new house by then.

A tap came to her shoulder.

It was Mercedes. "Hey, Santana, I just wanted to let you know I'm going to the Great Hall for breakfast and that our first class starts at nine, I talked to a prefect. Do you want me to wait for you?"

Santana fought the urge to yell at Mercedes. She was only being nice and, frankly, having a friend wouldn't hurt in adjusting to her new house.

"Nah, I'll stretch out a bit but totally meet you there." Santana answered.

Mercedes seemed happy with her response, because she smiled and turned to leave.

Santana realized that she was the only one left in her dorm, so she hastened out of bed.

The consequences of being too distraught to change into her pajamas last night was a wrinkled and slightly damp shirt. Thankfully she had more, and she quickly slipped on a fresh one and draped the old one over the chair next to her bed.

She glanced around the room curiously for the first time.

Five beds created a pentagon in the center of the room, where there was a furnace for controlling room temperature. On either side of each bed were a nightstand to the right and a chair to the left.

There was a door along one of the walls. Santana opened it to find a bathroom, with five separate showers and sinks with their own cubbies along the far wall to store fresh clothes and towels, toothbrushes and hair brushes. She decided she would take a shower after her classes, as she was probably already running late for breakfast.

She darted out of the room, grabbing her tie and her wand on her chair on the way out the door, rushing downstairs and through the portrait guarding their common room that contained a large woman.

She managed to find her way to the great hall, miraculously. She put her wand in the loop inside her robes, and frantically threw her red and gold tie around her neck. She walked into the Great Hall just as thousands of owls entered through the open windows. It was still raining, so as the owls flew overhead, water drops rolled off their wings and on to unsuspecting heads below.

Santana felt a droplet race down the back of her neck and shuddered gently. She saw the Gryffindors at the same table they had been last night, and made her way to sit next to Sam and Mercedes, who were near the middle. Before she could get there, a familiar set of blue eyes blocked her path.

"Hi." Brittany smiled at her.

"Hi." Santana smiled back gently.

"Let me get that for you." Brittany said, gently taking Santana's tie. A few flourishes later and she was tightening the knot in between Santana's collarbones, their eyes locking together. She smiled and tilted her head. "There." She all but whispered to Santana, who looked down at the neat double knot Brittany had done.

"Thanks, Britt." Santana softened her eyes at her best friend's unabashed grin.

"How are you, San?" Brittany's smile fell to a soft one, signaling Santana that she knew exactly what her friend had gone through. She really did know her that well.

"I'm okay, B." she half smiled. "I have Sam, and that's something. I think Mercedes will be cool, too."

Sam came running up to them, and Santana just noticed most of the rest of her house had already disappeared from the table. He carried two sheets of paper and a few pieces of toast, while the other steadied his bag.

"What's up, B-drizzle?" Brittany doubled over in laughter, and Santana had to chuckle at Sam's never-ending list of nicknames. "Sleep well?" he asked in Brittany's direction. She rolled her eyes at him and hugged him around the neck, affectionately kissing his cheek. He flushed brightly. "_B," _he whined slightly, glancing at the many people left in the Hall. She just laughed and pushed his shoulder, earning her an easy smile.

"Anyway, San, we totally have to go! I grabbed you some toast, but we have potions in like seven minutes! We gotta go!"

"Okay, well I'll see you guys later, we have our first class together today! Don't be late!"

"Bye Britt!" Santana and Sam yelled in tandem back to her, Santana grabbing the toast and ripping it into chunks, eating as they swiftly walked out of the hall.

"Ugh, why does our first lesson ever at Hogwarts have to be potions? I've heard Professor Snape is, like, pure evil." Sam whispered conspiratorially under his breath.

"Sam," Santana said through a mouthful of toast, "You can't know if something's going to be bad if you haven't done it yet."

Sam looked at her, appalled. "I'm sorry, but was that good advice that you just gave? Maybe I heard you wrong."

Santana swung her hand upwards to slap the back of his head, but he ducked in anticipation and his laugh echoed down the passageway.

"Alright, smart guy. Who do we have potions with?"

"Hufflepuff. That should be interesting. Hey! Isn't Finn a Hufflepuff?"

Santana smiled at him and his obvious giddiness.

"Do you, ah… do you mind if I sit with him?" he asked.

That earned him an eye roll. "Yeah, I guess that's fine. We do have, like, _every class together. _You can sit next to me in the next one. Speaking of which, I totally don't know what that is." She snatched the schedule from his hand.

"Santana!" he scolded as they jostled down the steps, "You could have given me a paper cut!"

She turned at that, because, '_Seriously?' _but saw his grin and knew he was joking.

They had reached the door to the potions classroom.

Santana saw Sam turn to her, and when she glanced at him, she saw he had raised his fist for a knuckle bump.

Santana rolled her eyes and obliged her friend, before opening the door and cautiously walking through. Sam made his way to sit with Finn, who also looked thrilled that he would be partners with Sam in the class. Santana looked between the two seats that were left open, and decided to take the one next to an unassuming boy with swooshy hair.

Santana reached into her bag, taking out her brand new notebook and quill set, neatly scrawling her name in the top right corner of the page. She took out her potions text-book and set it to the right of her notebook, in a prime reaching area.

The boy looked at her through his medium thickness glasses.

"Hi, I'm Arthur Abrams. You can call me Artie. I'm in Hufflepuff. Nice to meet you…" he trailed off, leaving a pause so Santana could share her name.

"Santana. You too. I guess we'll be partners. Know anything about potions?" Artie shook his head.

A door swung open loudly in the back of the classroom.

Footsteps rang through the chatter, evenly paced on the hard tile floor, causing everyone to immediately stop talking to their neighbors.

Their professor swept into view. Santana's first impression was that he looked like a bat. He was wearing robes that looked two sizes too big on him, and his robe, pants, shirt and vest were all black. The only different color was a thin line at his color of pure white.

He almost appeared to have jaundice, his skin was so yellow.

His hair was greasy, and hung in strands around his face, which his nose was overpowering. The most terrifying part about him, however, was his eyes. They were black, small and held nothing but contempt for the children he would soon be teaching.

Santana was terrified.

She felt Artie shudder next to her as their teacher sauntered his way up to the front of the classroom. No one had spoken a word since he walked in the room.

Professor Snape pulled his wand from his robes, and abruptly whacked it against the board.

"My name is Professor Snape. This is first year potions. Here, you will learn to do a number of things. Potions are an exact science. One wrong move and things will blow up in your face. If you are successful in your endeavors, you can make almost anything happen. This class will help decide your future here at this school." He sneered at them. "Now, please open your textbooks to page eight…"

The rest of the lesson was torturous. Snape had them organize all of their potions ingredients into the student supply cupboard, and spent the majority of the lesson going over how to properly clean out your cauldron once done brewing a potion.

Though the lesson dragged on, Santana found her table partner, Artie, to actually be quite charming. He was very funny, often telling jokes at Snape's expense under his breath to amuse Santana. Once he even pretended to eat a newt tail that he was packaging, and then laughed hysterically at Santana's disgusted expression.

It strangely helped to pass the time. When there were about five minutes left, Santana looked at her schedule for the first time. Yes! She had a class with the Ravenclaws next! She would have to be sure to save a seat for Brittany next to her.

Finally, the end of the class came. Artie turned to Santana and said "See you after lunch! I can't wait for your recap of the rest of your day. Make sure it's an interesting one to listen to, girl! Earn them house points!" Santana laughed and waved him away as she caught up to Sam at the door.

"Made a friend?" He smiled at her in question. "Put a sock in it, Sammy boy. Let's just get to charms so we can see Britt Britt! And Quinn will be there too. I suppose that's cool too."

Sam just rolled his eyes. He knew by now that the 'Santana hates Quinn' thing was just a front.

Although they had fifteen minutes in between every class, the charms classroom was four floors up from the potions classroom. So while they didn't have to run, they also couldn't go back to their common room or anything.

When they approached the classroom door, Brittany and Quinn immediately waved them over.

Brittany threw her arms around Santana. "I missed you!" she gushed, making Santana chuckle into her hair.

"Britt-Britt," she started, still giggling, "I saw you like an hour ago."

Brittany's eyes darted to the floor, and she suddenly became very small. Arms still around Santana, she could hear her when she mumbled.

"I know, but I still miss you, like, a lot."

Santana beamed at her. "I missed you too, Britt", she said, and kissed her cheek warmly. Brittany flushed immediately and tightened her hold slightly on Santana. The door to their classroom opened.

Linking hands, the two followed their classmates into the room. They took a table only one back from the front, with Sam and Quinn claiming the table next to theirs.

The class was warmly chatting when a small voice cleared its throat.

"Good morning, class!"

"Good morning, Professor." They all imitated mindlessly.

"Hey, it's Professor Flipper." Santana muttered under her breath to Brittany, excitedly.

Brittany scrunched her face in confusion. "I'm pretty sure that's not his name, San…"

"Now, class!" the teacher began again. "We shall be practicing wand movement today. Once we are done with that, we will move on to recitation. There will be no spell work today, but we shall begin with that the beginning of next class." Almost everyone groaned at the news. The blonde next to her, however, clapped her hands excitedly.

"Isn't this exciting, San?" Santana looked over, bemused.

She heard light chuckling from her other side. She turned to the front table to see a Ravenclaw boy, with dark black hair, combed to one side with a slight superman curl and a little of what appeared to be gel. He had nice eyes but his eyebrows took up most of his face with their triangular-ness.

She couldn't believe the nerve of this kid. Was he actually laughing at Brittany?

"Hey Blaine! This is my best friend Santana." Brittany whispered to the boy. "Santana, meet Blaine."

'Well, if he's a friend of Brittany's, he can't be too bad.' She thought. She gave him a little wave, which he returned enthusiastically.

Even though she was in between Brittany and Blaine, the lesson dragged. Not nearly as much as Potions had, thank God. She figured that all of her classes would be like this on the first day. They would learn how to do all the rudimentary skills before they could get to real magic.

The further the lesson went, the happier Brittany became. By the end, she was literally beaming with joy.

"San," she said, excited, "I totally get this. I can't wait until we get to practice everything together!"

Everyone began to pack their bags and head to the great hall for lunch.

There was a whole gang walking together of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws. Looking around them, Santana didn't really see any other houses doing the 'bonding thing'.

Brittany took Santana's hand once again as they set off towards the classroom door, following Quinn and Mercedes, who seemed to hit it off, Sam and Mike, Blaine and a Gryffindor boy who Santana hadn't met yet, but recognized him from the table last night.

When they reached the Great Hall, there was a bit of an awkward pause as the different houses eyed each other.

Blaine finally broke the silence. "Well, it'll be cool having Charms with you guys. Catch you later?" Everyone nodded and went to their perspective house tables.

"San," Brittany frowned, "Why can't we sit together?"

Santana took one look at her friend's pout and instantly caved.

"We can sit together. But… only during breakfast and lunch, okay? We can't let our housemates think we're abandoning them or anything. We can trade-off where we sit every meal, too. It'll make things fairer that way."

Brittany's scowl cleared from her face immediately and she grabbed Santana's hand again, dragging her after her to the Ravenclaw table. This earned several raised eyebrows, both from the Gryffindor table; when she signaled Sam she would be sitting with Brittany, and the Ravenclaw table; when they saw the girl in garnet approaching.

A boy with longer, wavy hair stood up from the Ravenclaw table. He sauntered all the way towards Santana and Brittany, on the way even slightly pausing to flip his hair out of his face.

Santana chanced a glance at Brittany, as if to say 'Is this guy for real?' but on a closer look, she saw Brittany looked slightly terrified. As he got closer, Santana could see the small, shiny badge emblazoned with a 'P', and everything clicked. This boy was coming over to yell at them.

He cleared his throat. "Excuse me," he simpered, "But who are you?"

"Santana Lopez." Santana stood toe to toe with him, challengingly looking him in the eye. "And you are?"

"San." Brittany hissed into her ear, tugging the hem of her shirt in warning.

"Not that it's any of your business, first year, but I'm Jesse St. James." He subtly threw his chest out so that his badge caught the light. "And I believe your table is over there." He pointed to his left mockingly.

"Listen, buddy," she was interrupted by Brittany grabbing her hand again and giving a cautionary squeeze.

"Look." She continued in a less threatening tone, "Brittany and Quinn are my best friends. If they want us to sit with each other during meals, I'm gonna do that. No disrespect or anything."

"Well, hate to break it to you, kid, but you have to sit with your own house. It's an unspoken rule. And all rules of any kind need to be followed. If you don't go sit with the Gryffindors, I'm going to have to report you to your head of house. Which you may be surprised to learn, is not Professor Flitwick."

She was getting really tired of this jerk. Who did he think he was? Yeah, he was a Prefect, but that didn't give him an excuse to be so mean to them just because they were younger.

"Excuse me." The stern looking witch who was sitting next to Dumbledore last night tapped Jesse St. James on the shoulder. "What is the issue at hand, St. James?"

"This Gryffindor first year refuses to sit at her rightful table, Professor McGonagall."

"Well, I don't know of anything forbidding friends sitting with each other. You two may carry on." She looked at them, almost smiling kindly at them.

And she strutted away. Jesse glared at the pair before returning to his seat, not saying another word on the matter.

The girls turned to each other, and Brittany gestured at Santana to sit next to her, opposite Quinn and the curly-haired boy, Blaine.

"What was _that _about, you guys?" he whispered, curious.

"Your male Prefect is an ass." Blaine and a boy next to him gasped. "What, have you never heard a curse word before, Blaine and boy with dreads?"

"His name's Joe. We've heard it, but just be careful who you say it around." He cast a quick glance in Jesse's direction.

"Oh. Um, thanks, curly q." Santana said, focusing on filling her plate with the food in front of her.

Blaine quirked an eyebrow and half smiled at the new nickname. The boy next to him, Joe, just nodded his head several times, as if bobbing to the beat of an invisible tune. Santana eyed him out of the corner of her eye, but decided the food was more worthy of her attention, as she was famished after mostly missing breakfast earlier.

"So, already making a name for yourself, Santana?" Quinn asked.

"You know it." Santana said around a mouthful of pasta.

"How was your first class, San?" Brittany glanced sideways at her, not looking where she was putting her fork full of linguini and lightly stabbing herself in the cheek.

Santana smiled at her fondly, and said "It was seriously awful, B. Well, I met a cool guy in Hufflepuff-"

Quinn scoffed.

"I know, right? What a weird sentence. But he was pretty cool. I'm glad I sat next to him or I think I would've fallen asleep. Of course, I probably would've been woken up by Snape stabbing me in the eye or something." She finishes dramatically.

Blaine, Quinn, Brittany and Joe all gasp.

"Is he really that bad?" Joe asked. "I've heard some pretty uncool things about him. I hear he doesn't even like potions, that all he really wants is the DADA job."

"Yeah, he sounds pretty awful." Quinn finished, shaking her head slightly.

"Oh, he is. What was you guys' first class?" Santana inquired.

"We had Transfiguration first. That was really hard. The only one who had their matchstick looking anything like a needle was Quinn. It was super cool." Brittany looked admiringly at Quinn.

"It wasn't much, it was just silver." She bashfully looked away.

"Wait, wait," Santana interrupted, "You guys actually did magic? I'm so jealous!"

The Ravenclaws laughed, and before anyone knew it, the clock could be heard chiming in the distance, signaling the end of lunch.

"See you later, San!" Brittany and Quinn smiled at her as she caught up to where Sam was waiting with the boy from earlier, who introduced himself as Kurt.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was _seriously _cool. Santana thought it would definitely be one of her favorite classes. It was a double class period with the Hufflepuffs, so she was glad she already had a Hufflepuff friend.

It turns out that she didn't need one, because they divided into pairs and were completing a worksheet about magical creatures, to find out their knowledge. At the end of the lesson they were going to get to see one.

Her partner's name was Tina Cohen-Chang. She was pretty, a little gothic for Santana's taste, but she seemed to be really sweet. And she was pretty smart, and for some reason knew a lot about magical creatures, which Santana was glad of.

Professor Lupin, the man who gave them chocolate on the train, stood up from his desk at the front of the room. "It's time to turn in your worksheets, class!"

There were a few groans, but everyone filed to stack them on Lupin's desk. He told them to sit back where they were originally sitting, so Santana and Sam ended up next to each other again.

After the reveal of the creature, which was actually really cool for the students, everyone packed their bags. Professor Lupin let them out ten minutes early, much to everyone's utter happiness.

Santana saw Artie waving goodbye to her from down the hallway, and gave his a smile and waved back at him, as the Gryffindors trekked up the many steps to the seventh floor, where their common room was.

Sam collapsed in a starfish position on the couch, Santana closely following and collapsing in a heap next to him.

"Oh my GOSH, what a hectic first day." Kurt said, daintily sitting on the chair by the couch.

Mercedes and Hadeel sat at the ottoman by Kurt's feet, and Mike sat on the other side of Santana on the couch.

"I know what you mean. I'm pretty sure I'm a hundred years older." Hadeel said, dramatically resting her head on Mercedes' shoulder.

Everyone laughed, and Hadeel grinned.

"In all honesty, I thought Snape was the worst professor ever. Why is he even teaching if he hates kids so much?" Mercedes thought.

"I have no idea. I thought Professor Lupin's class was cool, though." Mike chimed in.

"Not me," Lauren said, pulling up a chair to join their group. "I didn't like any of them. I thought they were all super lame. I mean, can you believe that Snape assigned us homework on the very first day of class? So lame."

They all mumbled in agreement, because, seriously, _who does that?_

After a little while of talking, they pulled out the worksheet Professor Snape had assigned them, hoping to bounce ideas off each other.

It took them a while, but after an hour of hard work, they were finally done, and after another hour of watching Mike own Sam in a game of wizard chess, it was time for dinner.

They all sat near each other once they got to the great hall, wondering about their classes tomorrow. Most of them were excited to have their first flying lesson with the Ravenclaws.

As they dug into their chicken, Santana caught herself thinking that maybe her fellow house mates weren't all terrible. She allowed herself to start to become excited for the next few days with her new friends.

She couldn't help but wonder how Brittany was doing. She looked over at the Ravenclaw table, stopping when she found a familiar head of blonde hair. As if sensing her gaze, Brittany looked up and immediately caught Santana's eyes, sending that familiar small, beautiful smile that was only Santana's in her direction. In that moment, despite the tables and houses and people keeping them apart, Santana knew that their friendship would be just fine.

**A/N: Hey guys! I hope you liked that! For the next chapter, we're finally going to get some action! Wooot. I have a question, though. Do you want to see most of their second day in the kind of detail I did for this chapter, or just get to the action? Let me know! And don't forget to tell me who you want everyone to end up with in the end. **

**Again, I'm really sorry about the lack of update last week. I was pretty un-motivated to write this chapter, but once I finally got into it, it was better. I blame the Olympics, I've been watching that pretty much all day every day. :) I can't help it, they're all so attractive, and, 'Merica, and stuff. :P **

**So, until next time! Pretty please read and review so I know what you guys want in the future! The reviews really help motivate me. You guys rock!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Heeey, guys. I'm terribly sorry that it's been so long since I've updated this. I've had a boat load of stuff to figure out once classes started this semester; but everything's pretty much all good so I should hopefully have a little more time to devote to this and my other fic, Life is Full of Riddles. (- See that? That, children, is what we like to call a SHAMELESS plug.) **

**So, anyway. Again, super sorry that I'm terrible, and all of that. To make up for it, (maybe, I hope,) here is a slightly longer chapter than last time. Have fun! Don't forget to review to let me know what you think! **

**Bombs away!**

* * *

Chapter 4 

The next morning at breakfast was much easier than the first one was. They weren't as nervous as they had been yesterday, because it was now their second day of school, and they had all gotten to know one another. It also helped that today was one of the days where the Gryffindors started later than everyone else, which meant that they could sleep in. Unfortunately, that meant only twenty minutes of Brittany and Santana time before Brittany ran off to get to class early.

The Gryffindors were still filing in; one at a time or in pairs, ever so slowly. Everyone was relishing in the extra time, lazily buttering toast or cutting through sausage, when the mail arrived.

It was still raining, so the owls were wet again, water cascading from their wings over everyone's heads.

No one really paid attention when an owl swooped towards the group of first years, clearly on a mission.

Only a few people noticed when that owl landed in front of Santana, dropping a red letter on top of her waffles.

But _everyone _was widely in tune with the world when that envelope tore open and started screaming in Spanish.

Santana was blushing furiously, covering her face with her hands, trying to block out her Grandmother's voice.

She had never been happier, however, that her Abuela spoke almost exclusively Spanish. Not that many people could understand Spanish, right?

Of course at that moment, her Grandmother decided to switch to English.

"I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS, SANTANA. GRYFFINDOR, WHAT AN ABYSMAL HOUSE FOR YOU TO END UP IN. HOW COULD YOU ALLOW SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPEN? Of course, this is not your fault _entirely. _Rest assured, I WILL be WRITING TO DUMBLEDORE FOR THIS ATROCITY. ESCUCHAME, DUMBLEDORE…"

Santana continued to stare at her hands, taking deep breaths and willing herself not to cry at her Abuela's words. She didn't see the letter rip into pieces and burn when it was finished yelling, but she did feel a pair of familiar arms nearly lift her from her seat and steer her out of the hallway, not stopping until they reached the nearest empty classroom.

She immediately turned into his chest, which was just slightly broader than Brittany or Quinn's, and practically clung to his robes. To his credit, Sam just stood stoically still until her tears turned to whimpers. It only took about a minute, because Santana is a Lopez, and Lopez's don't cry, damn it.

She frantically wiped at her eyes to catch the last few tears that were caught in her lashes as she stepped back from Sam. Sam just stood patiently with a small sympathetic smile on his face.

"Are you okay, San?" he questioned softly. She nodded, not trusting her voice. "Do you wanna talk about it?" he asked with another smile, knowing her answer even before she shook her head.

"Okay. Let's go grab your book bag so we can go to class." He said, slinging an arm around her shoulder.

She stopped him to give him a fleeting hug, whispering "Thank you" into his ear before heading out the door.

A few steps away from the door sat Artie. "Hey, guys. Um, I saw that you left your bag in the Great Hall, Santana, so I thought I could help by bringing it to you." He handed her the bag, a slightly sad look in his eyes. "I'm really sorry you had to get a howler. They're really no fun."

"Thank you, Artie. That was really sweet." Santana said, giving him a squeeze on the shoulder.

"Yeah, man, thanks. You're pretty rad." Sam grinned at him.

"No worries, guys. It's the least I can do in repayment for Santana saving me from death by boredom in Professor Snape's class." That cheered Santana up, as she laughed and asked Artie what class he had next.

"Double Charms with the Slytherins." He replied, scrunching his face up in distaste.

"Oh, ew. That's super lame, dude." Sam said in sympathy, patting Artie's shoulder.

"Yeah, totally. Sorry, Artie. Well, we gotta jet, we have Flying in like ten minutes, but we'll catch you later!" Santana says as she moves her bag to her other shoulder.

"For sure. See you later!" Artie grins, rolling in the opposite direction.

* * *

Their flying lesson was much easier than they thought it would be.

That's because it didn't happen.

The Gryffindors and the Ravenclaws trudged back down the hill they had just climbed, grumbling the whole way. Everyone was pleased they wouldn't be flying in this weather; it had been deemed a bad idea to teach them how to fly while it was currently pouring outside. The cold, slick rain had everyone in a grumpy mood. Everyone except one.

Brittany stayed towards the very end of the group, twirling merrily with her mouth wide open, trying to swallow some drops that were cascading down.

By the time the group reached the entrance to the castle, Brittany was still frolicking on the hill behind them. Santana willingly volunteered to retrieve her.

As Santana came closer to Brittany, she could see her friend had stopped spinning. She was just standing there, completely stock- still, gazing at the dark clouds above her head.

Santana made as much noise as she could while walking down the hill, as to not startle her friend. If Brittany could hear her, then she showed no sign of it. The rain began to fall harder.

When she was three steps away, Brittany suddenly turned her head slightly and said "San" in a way that was much less a question as to her identity, and much more a pleading for the girl to come closer. Brittany shivered violently.

Santana, of course, obliged, walking closer and lightly touching Brittany's upper arm with gentle, searching fingers. When Brittany finally turned around, she slid her hand down to entangle her fingers with Britt's.

Santana tugged Brittany's arm, trying to coax her indoors and out of the rain, or at the very least explain why she had suddenly stopped spinning. When Brittany finally met Santana's probing gaze, Santana nearly took a step back.

Brittany's eyes were completely dull, lifeless.

Santana was completely caught off guard at the lack of sparkle she found there.

She also saw how wide and terrified they had become, and the salt water that was caught at the edge of her tear ducts, trying not to fall.

Santana reverently brushed them away with the pad of her thumb, softly saying "Britt- Britt…"

Brittany shuddered with only her face and tightened her grip on Santana's hand. Santana shivered violently.

"They were laughing at me. The kids in my last class. I- I got an answer wrong and they- they started calling me names." Brittany explained, sniffling.

Santana started at the sudden noise, accidentally dropping Brittany's hand before quickly snatching it up again.

"Who was it, Britt? Did you or Quinn see who it was who was laughing at you?" She softly inquired, rubbing her thumb over the pulse thrumming through Brittany's wrist.

Brittany just softly shook her head. Santana nodded, accepting that Brittany was too sweet and didn't want anyone else to get in trouble. She counted a few beats of Brittany's gradually slowing pulse.

"What else?" she asked sweetly. Brittany took a steadying breath.

"I- I'm scared of losing you, San." Brittany said in an almost whisper, looking down sadly. Santana looked at her, aghast. "It's already starting, we're already in different houses, a- and-"

"Britt…" She whispered pleadingly.

"And to top it off, I wasn't there when your Abuela yelled at you in that Howler, and that makes me a really bad friend." Brittany said, her pout finally breaking into a whimper. "A- and… I'm really cold and wet and I just feel really scared for some reason." She said, sniveling sadly. Santana smiled at her warmly, squeezing her hand.

"Brittany…" she said, and before Brittany could continue tearing herself down, Santana pulled her into a tight hug.

"You are my best friend on the whole planet, Britt. There's no way you could ever do anything super bad. You're amazing." Santana said, rubbing her cheek against Brittany's comfortingly. Her gesture didn't pan out the way she thought, their cheeks ending up sticking together due to the rain on their faces, awkwardly halting the movement.

When Santana caught Brittany's eye again, she was relieved to see a tiny twinkle had returned to them.

"C'mon, Britt. Let's go." Santana said, still needing to comfort Brittany.

"Go? Go where?" Brittany asked. She took a step closer and held her hand firmly, indicating that she would clearly follow wherever Santana led.

Santana fleetingly wondered when Brittany had started trusting her so much.

_Had it always been that way?_

"My dorm." Santana finally answered. "Let's go get our snuggle on, Britts. It'll warm you right up and get all those scary thoughts out of your pretty head."

A very small smile appeared across Brittany's features as she allowed Santana to lead her back through the entrance of the castle.

There was no one in the common room when they got there, so Santana led Brittany up the three flights of stairs to her dorm in silence. She passed Brittany a nightgown, knowing it would fit, since Brittany was only an inch or so shorter than Santana.

Santana heard the bed creak as Brittany settled in under her covers, and her stomach got a really weird, floppy feeling. She wasn't ill, was she? It was probably the result of standing in the rain for so long.

She crawled in behind Brittany and fit her arm in its normal place; over Brittany's waist and fingers all tangled together.

She buried her nose in the curve between Brittany's neck and shoulder and took a breath. The familiar smell of Brittany washed over her, and she pulled her further into her chest. Brittany responded by tightening her grip on Santana's arm. In the embrace of her best friend, both girls drifted off into sleep.

* * *

Santana woke to a pillow being thrown at her head.

"Wake up, silly! It's time for class again!" Brittany called to her jovially from where she was hopping on one foot by Mercedes's bed, trying to tug a shoe on.

"I'm up, I'm up." Santana groaned, stretching her limbs. "I wish we could stay in bed all day." She said, kicking her foot slightly where it was newly reacquainted with the floor.

"San." Brittany implored. "We can't skip school now. We really need to learn this stuff. I know it's so super lame, but we have to."

Santana jokingly glared at her, and rose to whisk off her nightgown and pull her normal clothes back on, which had finally dried out.

Santana and Brittany quickly parted ways, Santana running to Herbology and Brittany darting to Transfiguration.

Unfortunately, this meant Santana had to brave the blustery winds and hard, heavy rain that lasted for about a ten minute walk from the castle doors to the greenhouses. She caught up to her classmates, who were also having a difficult time.

She saw Mike get both of his feet stuck in the mud up ahead of her and, in trying to get him out, Sam and Puck fell and slid partially down the small hill.

Needless to say, everyone was sufficiently miserable by the time they actually entered the greenhouses.

Perhaps it was for this reason, then, that Professor Sprout's alarmingly chipper "Good afternoon, first years! How did that weather treat you?" and consequent chuckle grated Santana so. She ran her fingers over the etched wood that read things like "Plants rule!" and "School is for dweebs!" to help calm herself.

Santana attempted to let Professor Sprout's comment roll off of her, instead focusing on the lesson.

Half an hour later, she and Sam had been partnered with two Slytherins; Puck, which was a relief, and Rachel Berry, the girl from Ollivander's.

_Great,_ Santana thought, _I won't even be able to hear the teacher over Rachel. She just talks so much I can't do anything but listen to my brain blowing up._

Rachel clearly could not see Santana's apathy of being partnered with herself, (or if she did, she ignored it,) as she jumped right into fervently whispered conversation.

"Well hello again, Santana! Congratulations on being sorted into Gryffindor! I understand that our houses are traditionally enemies, but I hope that we can put that fact aside and continue to build the foundation of friendship that has been so beautifully fostered, mostly by myself, since we met in that fated wand shop. I will let you know that I anticipate being very advanced in all of my studies, so if you ever find yourself in need of a tutor or an extra member in a study group of some kind, I will be more than thrilled to offer any and all services that you need-"

"Jesus, Rachel," Puck said, raising his eyes to the sky in exasperation, "What did I tell you about your rants? It's, like, _okay to breathe_. Just once in a while. If you pass out it'd be really difficult to take you back up to the castle. The guns from the show you all bought tickets to see-" he flexes, looking rather impressed with himself, "-can only do so much, if you know what I mean." He finishes, winking roguishly at Santana.

"I'm sure, because of the torrential rain and all of the mud." Said Rachel, nodding to show she understood. "It's quite understandable, Noah."

Puck grits his teeth. "I told you, I go by Puck now…"

"Yes, because as a fellow first year, you totally rule the school with your masterfully elite combination of fear and popularity." Rachel said, eye rolling grandly. Santana giggled behind her hand.

Puck opened his mouth to retort, but stopped as Sam placed a hand on his shoulder. "Guys, should we get this assignment done?"

The group agreed and everyone paired off. Santana was with Rachel; Sam with Puck.

"Okay, so the trick here is to slowly approach the vines, and then grasp firmly with both hands at the end, by the head- it's just like a snake." Rachel read to Santana from the instructions.

Santana rolled her eyes, because, duh, she was here when Professor Sprout gave the class their instructions, too. This was going to be a long class period.

The three vines in the stalk nearest to them seemed to be play- fighting, wildly snapping at each other with really sharp teeth. Santana did as Rachel said and firmly gripped the spotted yellow and purple vine in question from where it was lazily stretching in front of her.

"I did it! I got it!" Santana shouted, elated. No one else had managed to grab theirs yet.

"Excellent! Five points to Gryffindor!" Professor Sprout awarded. The other Gryffindors beamed at her proudly. She turned to Sam to find him grinning at her widely, and by the time she registered Rachel's "Santana!" it was too late.

Green puss oozed from her bite mark, traveling faster down her arm once combining with the sweat that was there from wrestling the vine in the first place. Rachel clapped a hand to her mouth, Puck paled and threw a fist over his mouth, and Sam shuddered before rushing forward to fix it.

"Professor!" called a mousy brunette Slytherin next to Puck, glancing up briefly from where she sat filing her nails as her partner did all the work, "This Gryffindor girl has just gotten herself bitten!"

Santana turned to glare, but it didn't necessarily have the intended effect, as she winced sharply halfway through.

"Lopez, Hospital wing!" Professor Sprout hollered from the front of the greenhouse classroom. Santana grumbled, grabbing her things one handed and shoving them in her bag, waving away Rachel's hands from touching any of her things. "And while you're there, ask for a pepperup potion as well, lest you catch a cold."Santana meekly nodded her head and shouldered her bag before stepping out once again into the blistery rain.

The walk back to the castle was not nearly as bad as the walk away had been. As Santana was shaking herself dry in the main entrance, the thought crossed her mind that she had no idea where the Hospital Wing really was. She supposed she could just wander until she found it. She could have sworn she heard someone say it was on the third floor… or did they say second? To be safe, she decided checking both floors would be a good idea.

She was currently walking past a door that she recognized as Professor McGonagall's classroom from when she walked Britt there before, and paused, hearing laughter behind the door.

The shuffle of chairs and shoes echoed a moment later and she threw herself behind a conveniently placed statue, feeling like she shouldn't be there, for some reason.

As the trail of chuckling people wore off, out came Brittany, all by herself. Santana rolled her eyes, presuming Quinn had stayed behind to ask the Professor about the lesson they just did. What a nerd, that one. She smiled, readjusting her bag so she could catch up to Brittany and surprise her by walking her to her next class.

A few people behind Brittany was Sam's friend, Finn. He was whispering to the two girls next to him and kept pointing at Brittany. When Brittany would catch them and turn around, they would all literally whistle to the ceiling, pretending they weren't following Brittany. Santana could see them biting back laughter every few feet. When Brittany gave up the little game, they all chortled with cruel laughter. They passed Brittany soon enough with a biting "Even her walking's slow."

Santana was ready to burst from her hiding place and comfort her friend (after beating down those idiots) when she heard thundering footsteps jogging up the staircase.

What she saw next positively froze her blood with fear and anger.

A few dozen feet in front of Brittany, Karofsky and Azimio came strolling from the opposite end of the hallway. This group, too, pointed to Brittany, covering their mouths in silent laughter and stalking closer.

"Hey, Pierce!" Azimio called, "My grandmother's friend from the home called, she said she needs her brain back! She can't remember how to do anything or where she put anything, including her own brain!"

Karofsky chortled, joining in a moment later. "Yeah, Pierce, why don't you just do us all a favor and drop out of school? You're too stupid to even try passing exams at the end of the year, no use exhausting us from having to look at you every day."

And that was the end of any self-control Santana may or may not have had earlier.

"Hey, jerks!" she shouted, seething with blind rage. "What did you just call her?"

The boys whipped around, and, seeing it was her, began laughing again.

"What, you think you could take us?" Karofsky asked through his tears. "Please, last time you had to have that scrawny Asian kid step in and save you."

"Seriously, it would be like stealing a bottle from a baby. You think you-" Azimio pointed to Santana, "Could seriously defend _her_?" he pointed to Brittany, utterly bemused.

"I would defend her if it was the last thing I had the chance to do! And I will always defend her from jerks like you!" Santana preached, stepping forward and landing a good strike to David's eye. He stumbled backward in pain.

She quickly followed with a well- placed kick to the shin, and he countered with an elbow to the ribs before he tripped and fell partly down the steps.

Azimio growled and jumped forward, raising his hand to slap Santana when a loud "Enough!" broke through the midst of the fight.

"Karofsky, Azimio, my office, now." Professor Lupin barked, fingers twitching angrily.

"But, Professor, it was Lopez' fault! We didn't do anything!"

Professor Lupin raised a hand. "I don't want to hear it."

The two Slytherins sulked off toward Lupin's office on the third floor.

When they were out of earshot, Professor turned to the two in confidence.

He glanced at Santana for a moment, as if trying to decide what to say.

"Try putting your thumb on top of your fingers next time you have to do that, you'll break fewer bones that way." He winked before turning and walking back to his office.

Santana turned to Brittany, laughing merrily, but, although she appeared to be smiling, Santana could easily tell it was a cover up- the smile didn't reach Brittany's eyes. Brittany wouldn't even look at her.

"Britt, did I… did I do something wrong?"

Brittany gave a weird little toss with her head and shot her a semi-withering glare.

"San you…" she began, taking a breath to calm down. "You just took on those two evil villains without any safety c-concern for yourself. I'm so mad at you because you got hurt, but I also can't be mad at you, because you got hurt, and you defended my honor or whatever. So yeah, I'm really mad at you, because what's g-going to happen once you're on your own? You can't seriously take those guys on by yourself, you're really tiny. No one will be there to bail you out and I just really can't lose you. In general, but especially to mean, stinky, hairy gorilla jerks… I can't stand to see you hurt, especially when you could have let it go. I'm n-not okay with you being hurt for me." Brittany said, wiping her tears as soon as they streamed down her face.

Santana hung her head, disappointed. She had let Brittany down. Could she get anything right today?

"Sorry, Britty." She said sullenly.

Brittany tilted her head, studying Santana. "Come here, San." She finally said.

Santana walked willingly into the open arms of her best friend, laying her head on Brittany's shoulder for a few seconds. She felt Brittany squeeze her tighter, closer to her.

Santana would have normally enjoyed the closeness, but she winced because Brittany caught the edge of where Karofsky had elbowed her in the ribs. Brittany pulled back, frowning.

"Come on. Let's get you to the Hospital Wing, San. I think Karofsky really hit your ribs hard." Brittany pouted, taking Santana's hand in her own and leading her up the stairs.

"So it _is_ on the third floor."

"What on _Earth_ have you been doing, girl?"

Needless to say, Madame Promfrey; the school nurse; was flabbergasted as to how Santana could get so injured in the span of a single day.

"What did you say was the plant that bit you?" she asked after putting some salve on the quickly purpling bruise on Santana's ribs and a little on the cut going through her eyebrow. She slapped a Band-Aid on it before going to a cabinet largely labeled "Those damn Plants in Herbology."

"Um… I think it was called Red Vines. Which, thinking back, doesn't make much sense, because the vines weren't red…" Santana paused, throwing a bewildered look to Brittany.

Brittany shrugged. "Well, why are hippogriffs called hippogriffs? They don't look anything like Hippos or Griffs. At least, not to me." She finished sheepishly.

Santana beamed. Brittany made so much sense sometimes.

"Right… well, hold out the injured arm, please, Ms. Lopez." Madame Promfrey rejoined the conversation with a bottle of red liquid. She also had a sort of eyedropper, and filled it with said liquid before instructing Santana any further.

"This is going to sting." She warned. Santana braced herself, squeezing her eyes shut. She felt Brittany take the hand on her uninjured arm. Distracted, she felt the cold of Brittany's hand and zoned in on how nice it felt on her hot skin, before-

"OUCH!" she yelled as she felt the liquid ooze down into her bite. "AH, GOD THAT HURT!"

Brittany squeezed her hand tighter and Madame Promfrey gave her a "There, there, you'll be alright." And a pat on her shoulder before returning to her office.

Madame Promfrey told her that she would have to sleep for a few hours to wait for the potion on her arm to seep all the way into her skin.

Brittany helped her change into the night clothes provided by the hospital, and she crawled under the covers, suddenly totally spent. Brittany crawled into the small twin bed behind her, and leaned over to give a small kiss on top of the Band-Aid over her eye. Brittany settled in, making sure the covers were over Santana's shoulders, just the way she liked them, before settling her chin on Santana's shoulder.

Santana was very steadily approaching sleep, but the last thing she definitely remembered hearing (and probably would remember, forever,) was a very tiny "You're my hero, San."

And that sound wafting over her was so much better than any balm or crème that the school could provide.

* * *

It was now several weeks after the fight with Karofsky and Azimio, and things were going great. Santana has no idea what Professor Lupin said to make the boys stay away from her, but they were doing so and she couldn't be more grateful.

She, Brittany, and Sam were doing really well in all of their classes. Quinn, of course, was the top in almost all of the classes. The only ones she wasn't the top in, Blaine or Mike were.

Brittany and Mike had become fast friends. Once they started hanging out more often, they realized that they both had an insatiable love for dance. So, they started a dancing club at Hogwarts. The only members so far were Brittany, Mike, Santana, Rachel and Santana's friend Artie.

After almost two weeks of everyone kind of watching Brittany and Mike dance around the abandoned classroom with grace that surpassed their ages; Rachel suggested that she would sing their accompanying piece of music.

It all snowballed from there; they got their little club a supervisor, one Professor Shuester (a substitute Arithmancy teacher), got a few more members in the forms of Sam, Quinn, Mercedes and Tina (the girl from Santana's class). A few weeks after that, Kurt and Blaine joined together, and a week after that came Puck. They became an official music group, and decided (after pouring over volumes and volumes of muggle music history books) that they would be referred to from now on as a Glee Club.

Seeing as they were the ones to found the club, albeit inadvertently, Brittany and Mike were the official dance captains of the group. She and Mike started spending all of their free time together. Not that Santana noticed.

Alright, okay, so maybe she noticed. But it's not like she cared, or anything. She had enough older boys trying to date her, she didn't need to spend as much time with Brittany as she used to.

_It's better this way._ She thought after Brittany and Mike disappeared yet again to rehearse, she sat on one end of the couch, rolling her eyes with fervor.

Seeing this, Mercedes and Hadeel each grabbed one of her arms and frog-marched her up and away to their dorm.

"Okay, you've got like one minute to spill the beans or I'm going to hit you." Hadeel said jokingly. Or, so Santana hoped.

"Seriously, girl, you have been at everyone's throats lately. What the heck is going on? Does it have anything to do with Brittany and Mike?" Mercedes investigated.

Santana could feel her cheeks getting rosy. Not that it would show on her skin.

"Is that a blush? I totally knew it!" Hadeel exclaimed, pumping her fist emphatically in the air.

Santana felt over her cheeks. "But- how-"

Mercedes giggled, rocking back and forth on the bed. "We did, you know. We totally called it. We knew you liked Mike!"

Wait; she liked Mike? I mean, yeah, she did, but not like that.

Oh. _Oh._

Oh no, no, that's not why she's blushing-

"I'm not blushing because I have a crush on Mike!" she stated loudly.

Mercedes and Hadeel stopped, utterly shocked. It seemed they hadn't even considered the possibility of her not actually liking Mike. "Then why are you being so weird?"

Santana shrugged, at a loss for words. She didn't really have an answer.

A loud, piercing scream ripped through the still air in the tower.

"W… what was that?" Mercedes asked, shaken.

"I don't know." Santana frowned. "Let's go see if everyone's okay."

When they made their way downstairs, they were surprised to find only Lauren, Sam, and an older Gryffindor boy in the Common Room.

A thundering could be heard outside the portrait, in the hallway beyond.

Lauren and the older boy pushed on the portrait, trying to open it to see what was happening. It seemed like it was stuck.

There was a second thundering; it seemed like thousands of footsteps were pounding down the stairs.

A moment later, there was a loud, crisp knock on the door.

"Is anyone in there?" a voice asked politely.

"Yes! We're in here, sir!" the older boy yelled.

"Stand back from the portrait, please!" the voice replied moments later. Lauren and the boy walked to stand with the other Gryffindors behind the couch. The portrait swung inward on its hinge to reveal the tall figure of the man framed by it- Albus Dumbledore.

"Good evening, students." He smiled warmly at them over his half-moon glasses. "It seems we are in rather a predicament. It would behoove the remainder of you to join your housemates in the Great Hall; that is where all of the students will be sleeping tonight."

He frowned and furrowed his eyebrows at his next thought, but continued anyway. It briefly reminded Santana of Brittany.

"As to the noise I'm sure you all heard; your Common Room was almost broken into tonight." He frowned. "So until we catch the person or persons who did this, it would be best to stay where we can keep an eye on you."

He straightened up, waving them out of the doorway and into the hallway. "It's best to not linger here and overthink it too much. Come along." He said jovially.

The students followed him single-filed down to the Great Hall, the shredded portrait that used to protect their common room swinging shut, deathly slow from the weight of the torn fabric of the painting, haltingly closing, creaking as it went.

* * *

**A/N: Hooraaaaay! Okay, let me have it! Too short, too long? Anything you want to see happen? Do you have any preferences as to whom our favorite characters date first? Crazy class scenes you want to see, or more fights?**

**What was your favorite part of the chapter? I have to say that I'm always partial to Santana sticking up for Brittany against bullies. So expect some more of that sometime, haha.**

**Let me know! Thank you, as always, for reading!**

**(Reviews totally make my day, feel free to leave them! :P) 3 you guys.**

**Till next chapter!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hey, guys. No excuses for how long I've been gone. One of my New Year's resolutions is to be better about uploading. To make up for it a little, here's the longest chapter yet. Without further ado, here is Chapter 5. Glee does not belong to me, still.**

* * *

Chapter Five

The students followed Dumbledore down to the Great Hall solemnly. They were all at sort of a loss of what to do, vulnerable in the wake of the attack on the thing that let them sleep safely at night.

The few students that were still lingering in the tower were among the last to get to the Great Hall- almost everyone else had been in the hallway or on the stairwell when the portrait was discovered to be slashed, and they were all stewarded simultaneously into one safe area.

Once they got there, the first familiar face they ran into was Artie. He was in a bit of a state of panic. It was much harder for him to get up and down stairwells because of his chair, so he felt a bit unsafe. He was trying to play it off, though, making casual jokes until Mercedes and Hadeel left to find the other Gryffindors. Santana was surveying with sweeping glances everyone in the Great Hall for that familiar pair of baby blues.

Her gaze stuttered to a halt when she tripped over them, standing next to Sam.

She let out a sigh of relief; even though she knew it was irrational, she had still been concerned over Brittany's welfare, and wouldn't be comforted until she was able to physically reassure herself that her best friend was fine.

Artie noticed that she was staring in the opposite direction of where he was, so he said "I'll be fine here, I've got Finn and Tina to keep me company. You're good, girl." Santana smiled warmly at her friend, and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, squeezing as she walked past him.

She weaved in between the various Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws before she got to the group of her Glee club friends and some of her other House mates.

As soon as Brittany saw her, her eyes grew wide and she pushed off of Sam, pulling his arm from where it was draped over her shoulder and laying it against his side. She lightly pushed past Rachel and Quinn and twirled around a group of Ravenclaws and suddenly she was in Santana's arms.

Santana weaved fingers through her hair and buried her nose in the place where Brittany's jaw met her neck. She felt Brittany pull her even tighter to her as she buried her own face in Santana's hair.

"I- I have no idea why, but I thought you were hurt and I was freaking out…" Brittany said, frantically smoothing down the back of Santana's robes to comfort her.

"I know," Santana replied, "Ditto."

The girls stayed in each other's arms until someone obviously cleared their throat behind them.

Spinning, Santana came face to face with one of the people she hated most in the entire castle- Draco Malfoy.

Santana and Malfoy had met when Draco strolled into her potions class one day a couple of weeks ago. Snape had proceeded to continue for the rest of the class to use Malfoy as an example of 'what amazing things one could do if one applied themselves at Potions'. In all actuality, it was a lesson on the perks of being Teacher's Pet. Malfoy began brewing a potion at the front of the class, trying to prove that he was an expert by finishing first. He came close, and was beat by only one person; Santana.

After that class, Malfoy seemed to go out of his way to mess with Santana.

He and his goons Crabbe and Goyle seemed intent on making Santana's life a living hell. Just this past Tuesday, for instance; they lay in waiting, hunched in the shadows, and pushed her down a flight of stairs as she walked by. She had to stay overnight in the Hospital Wing.

She was less than enthused to see them now in such close proximity to Brittany.

Malfoy chuckled darkly. "Well hello, Lopez. Who's your friend?"

"She's none of your damn business." Santana snapped, stepping defensively in front of Brittany.

"San…" Brittany said, low and cautious.

"Oh, _San_, is it? I'm sorry I haven't been calling you by your proper name, _San_." He sneered. Crabbe and Goyle snickered behind him. Malfoy's eyes flickered next to her, as if he smelled danger. Sure enough, there was Professor Sprout, eying them suspiciously. Malfoy scowled at the thought of being unable to continue publicly humiliating her. He fluffed out his robes carefully and glared up at Santana.

"It's been a nice chat, Lopez. I'll be keeping my eye on you." Malfoy turned and sauntered away towards the Slytherin group, his henchmen lumbering behind.

"Who was _that_?" Brittany questioned, "I didn't like him at all."

"Draco Malfoy. He doesn't like me because I beat him in potions the other day."

Brittany smiled at this, saying "I always knew you were smart, Sanny."

Santana blushed and grinned, and consented to having Brittany shepherd her back to their group.

"Does anyone know what really happened?" Quinn asked in a conspiratorial voice.

"Well, uh- I heard it was Sirius Black." Blaine answered in an equally low voice.

"S- Sirius Black? Like the murderer guy from the creepy wanted posters?" Brittany shuddered.

"The very same." Sam nodded to his sister solemnly. "This is why we all have to stick together."

"Don't be naïve. If Sirius Black were really in this castle and wanted to kill people, we'd all already be dead." Quinn said matter-of-factly.

"Well, if it _is _Sirius Black, he's only after one thing." Rachel said, pausing for a dramatic effect.

"_Harry Potter."_

There were a few gasps, Mercedes said "WHAT?" rather loudly, and Sugar, who joined them only for Rachel's announcement, sniggered.

"Oh come off it," Puck interjected, walking up to the group. "You honestly think Potter is the reason a madman would come into a castle fully loaded with young children?"

Kurt sneered in disgust, but no one else seemed to catch on to what Puck was implying.

"Anyway, we know the real reason the castle is shut down." He looked around the group to check if he had everyone's attention, and then; "Trolls."

The entire group laughed at once. Puck seemed hurt, and defended himself. "No, seriously! That's what they're saying. It happened two years ago, on Halloween Night." His tone became angrier. "I have the best source for this, I'm not shitting you!"

Rachel covered her ears and gasped at the curse word, glaring at Puck with a fiery passion.

"Okay, oh- so wise Puck, then who is it? Who is your source?" Mercedes inquired.

"A man never reveals his secrets." Puck whispers, puffing his chest out. "A man knows how to keep his word." He glanced in the direction of Jacob Ben Israel, who was lingering nearby.

"A man is super dumb." Mike says, rolling his eyes. "You actually believe a word out of JBI's mouth?"

"Well it's much more realistic then your theory." Puck spat, still trying to salvage his pride.

"Puck's right." Santana states, earning her a few raised eyebrows and a grateful look from Puck. "Both of these ideas are kind of crazy."

"Maybe we should try to stick together until we figure out what's going on." Quinn suggested.

Sam rolled his eyes and muttered "I totally just said that." out of the corner of his mouth to Brittany, making her giggle.

The group generally mumbles their consent to Quinn. Brittany and Mike waved the Hufflepuffs over, and they all set up their puffy, purple sleeping bags next to each other.

Brittany immediately sets hers up next to Santana's, with Mike on her other side and Quinn on Santana's.

Professor McGonagall passed over them, vaguely eying Brittany and Santana's clasped hands, before turning her piercing gaze to the next group of students.

Sam, lying above Brittany, leaned down over her shoulder to whisper to the group. "You guys, if we weren't in danger… why are all the teachers and prefects doing patrols?"

Mike furrows his brow in thought. "Maybe they're just counting? Like, seeing who's missing?"

A voice calls from their left, booming "Lights out in two minutes!"

The group drew closer together, a few of the others edging closer as well.

"Well if it _was_ a troll," Noah hypothesized, "They would all need to be here to protect us in case it came trampling through the castle."

"Don't be ridiculous." An older, blonde Ravenclaw called from a few sleeping bags over. She was lying all by herself.

"Trolls are notoriously gentle creatures. I highly doubt it was trolls. They would be much more likely to break in and leave gifts for us all than try to eat us."

Rachel not-so-subtly leaned over and hissed "Is she serious?"

The voice from earlier rang out again. "Lights out, Children!"

Everyone wiggled down into their sleeping bags.

Nearly an hour had passed, and Santana was still staring up at the ceiling of stars swirling above her, lost deeply in thought.

Why did so many people pick on her? It's not like she was mean to them, or anything. In the short period of time at the castle, she's somehow managed to get on the bad side of Snape, Malfoy, and Karofsky and Azimio. I mean, this was getting ridiculous! Well, at least it wasn't as bad as Kurt.

Karofsky and Azimio seemed to have it out for the poor guy. Almost every single evening, Kurt would come back to the Gryffindor Common Room with several more bruises than he had when he left that morning. Mike and Sam had tried to talk him into letting them walk with him to their classes, even Artie suggested he could roll next to him, but Kurt seemed to shrug off their suggestions. The only ones he seemed to open up to were a third year Gryffindor boy with a round face and, surprisingly, Mercedes.

Mercedes and Kurt had become best friends over the course of the first month at school. Santana had no idea when and where they had the time to bond, what with the ridiculous amounts of school work they were getting, Glee practice, and actually being able to sleep. But, their friendship worked in the weirdest way. They were certainly soul mates in diva-land, that was for sure.

Santana was interrupted from her musings when Brittany let out a gasp to her right- the kind Brittany only makes when something startles her so violently it throws her from the confines of slumber.

Santana immediately turned and met frantic blue eyes, still dull with confusion and the last dregs of sleep. Brittany seemed to remember where she was, slowly, and scooted over so that she lay under Santana's open arm.

A few moments passed. She let Brittany's heartbeat slow down, waiting for her breath to come out in longer, slower bursts before addressing her. "Wanna talk about it?"

Santana could physically feel Brittany swallow. She pulled her closer.

"It was Sirius Black." Brittany gave after a moment's pause. "I dreamt he was chasing me all through the streets of London. He was so scary, San. He wanted to eat me whole." Brittany frowned enormously up at her best friend.

"What can I do to make it go away?" Santana asked gently. Brittany smiled at the offer. Next to them, Quinn's breath was starting to change from languid and tempered to uneven, staccato breaths. She blearily opened her eyes.

"Can you tell me a story? You're so good at that, San." Brittany requested, nuzzling her nose into Santana's collarbone.

Quinn partially sat up, leaning on her elbows. "You're telling a story, San?" she whispered. "Can I listen?"

"Of course, Q." Santana smiled. Quinn shifted over and laid her head next to Santana's hip, turning into her warmth. Santana rolled her eyes at her best friends, and thought of ideas for the story. When she had a general plot, she closed her eyes and began, the story weaving its way behind her eyelids.

"Once upon a time, there was a Princess, Penelope. Penny had many things in life. Her parents were very rich, and so anything she wanted, even if it was just a little bit, she got. But even though she had everything money could buy, she was still really sad, because she didn't have any friends. Not a single one! Isn't that sad?

Anyway, so, because she was so sad, the King and Queen sent letters all over the country to get a wise man to come and cure their daughter. But, alas, no one could. One day, long, long after the King and Queen had given up any hope of ever seeing the Princess smile again, a young girl came to the castle and said she knew how to fix the Princess. The King and Queen weren't so sure, but they let her try anyway. They sat the Princess and the young girl, who were about the same age, across from each other at a small table. Without a word, the little girl began making tea for the Princess and herself. She told the Princess all about her life on the farm, about all her favorite animals, her fat pet cat and her horse. After talking for a little while, the little girl set down her teacup and turned to the Princess. Putting on a very funny voice, she asked the Princess "More tea, mi' lady?" The Princess thought it was the funniest thing ever, and after that, the Princess always laughed and smiled because she had what she always wanted; a friend."

"And they lived happily ever after." Brittany smiled once again into her collarbone. Quinn was already asleep again, having dozed off in the middle of the story.

"Yeah, Britt, they did." Santana chuckled.

"San?" Brittany whispered, slow with the sleep that she was desperately trying to fight away. "Did you make that whole thing up? Because it sounded almost like it was a true story."

"It _was_ a true story, Britt." Santana said, burying her nose into her best friend's hair and pulling her even closer to her chest, squeezing in a hug. "It was true."

They exhaled together, and were quickly lulled into sleep by one another's heartbeats.

* * *

Santana woke up a few mornings later to find Brittany draped across her back. She could tell it was Brittany, because although she couldn't see her friend, she could smell her perfume. Besides, no one but Brittany would wear something that fluffy on their body.

So, Santana started wiggling back and forth in her bed to wake her friend up. She knew it worked when Brittany started giggling softly.

"Saaaaaaaan," she whined, "I don't wanna get up. It's so super cold and you're super warm."

Santana laughed quietly. "Britt, when did you even get here? How did you get in?"

"I have my ways of getting into places I'm not supposed to." Brittany says, smiling sneakily. "I came in last night at, like, eleven. I had a bad dream again…" she trails off, unsure. "I thought, maybe we could get ready for the game together?"

"Of course, Britt."

Today was the first Quidditch match. Well, technically it was the second; for the first one both Brittany and Santana had detentions for goofing off in class together. Because it was Professor Flitwick, he had decided to spare them an actual punishment like cleaning the bathrooms, and just forbade them from going to the first Quidditch game of the season.

Sam told them all the details- "You don't understand, Cho Chang dove- and I mean _dove_ through the air to grab the snitch-" while Quinn was just happy to tell them that Ravenclaw had steamrolled Slytherin, and that she wished they had been there.

Today's match was Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff, and both girls were going to be decked out in garnet and gold.

After taking a shower and getting fully dressed, Santana went back into the dorm to find Brittany dressed but fast asleep on her bed. Rolling her eyes with a smile, Santana nudged Brittany awake and linked arms with her, leading her sleepy friend to the Great Hall after draping a Gryffindor scarf around her neck.

People were painting each other's faces at the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables when the girls joined everyone at breakfast.

Santana sat down, pulling a bleary Brittany after her, and began searching for waffles. A boy with flaming red hair saw her plight and passed her the platter. She thanked him with a sleepy grin.

Everyone followed the team to the fields, meandering on the way there. Sam, for some reason, decided to paint his entire face with red and gold designs. Kurt wore a very stylish garnet and gold wrap, and walked arm in arm with a decked out Mercedes. Blaine walked next to them with a red and gold checkered hat. Even Quinn had a small lion stamped on her cheek and a tiny flag.

It was a blustery late October morning, cold and bitter wind chilling them to the core. They took to the stands and huddled close together.

And as soon as the teams were out, it started to pour.

"Aw, my face paint." Sam said forlornly.

"Are you KIDDING?" Lauren Zizes shouted from behind them. "I just GOT that umbrella!"

Santana glanced from her place under Sam's arm to see Lauren's umbrella floating up into the sky with a gust of wind.

"I CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS TO BE OVER." Quinn shouted over the wind to them. She shifted closer to Mike for warmth and hid her face in his shoulder.

"HOW IS IT A TIME OUT ALREADY? WE JUST GOT ON THE FIELD." Mike shouted in turn, confused.

Santana peered out between Sam and Brittany's arms to see the players descending. "What are they doing?" she said loudly against a person's neck (who she assumed to be Brittany.)

"NO IDEA." Sam shouted back at her.

The teams rose from the ground once more, although it was now raining so heavily that all they could see were red and yellow blurs.

"I hope Artie's wheelchair won't malfunction!" Brittany said worriedly in Santana's ear. Santana barely paused to shoot her an adoring look when there were shouts all around them.

"WHERE IS HE GOING?" a voice yelled behind them.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS HE THINKING?" said the red haired boy from earlier.

Harry Potter was shooting up into the sky, according to the commentary. Everyone guessed that he was following the snitch.

"UGH, THANK GOD THE MATCH IS ALMOST OVER." Mercedes yelled next to them. And then-

"OH MY GOD!"

"WHAT IS HE DOING?"

"OH GOD- SOMEONE HELP HIM!"

A figure came from above, spiraling down from the heavens, splayed out like an eagle. There was only one person it could be- Potter, and he appeared to be committing some kind of kamikaze dive.

"HE- HE'S NOT MOVING!" Sam shouted, trying to wave the professors to act and do something about it. Miraculously, one of them seemed to hear him, and Headmaster Dumbledore stood at his full height and raised his hand, stopping Potter before he crashed into the soggy, frozen ground.

Everyone left the stands in confusion. The Gryffindors were slumping back, disheartened.

"I cannot believe that happened." Blaine said as they squished their way back to the castle.

"What are the odds, really?" Mike asked, shaking his head sadly at the loss of the game.

"It'll be alright, guys. It's just the first game." Brittany piped up, always cheerful.

"Ugh, yeah, just one game to _you_." Noah's sulking voice rang out from behind them. "This is going to totally kill my chances at winning fantasy Quidditch this semester."

Sam stopped right where he was, nearly causing a domino effect when both Santana and Kurt had to jump to the side of him. He turned to Noah and said "Honestly, dude? Just… no." And he turned and continued to trek through the muck.

"I thought it was a great idea." Noah muttered.

"I think it was." Rachel's voice whispered encouragingly.

"Oh my God, Rachel, stop sucking up." Quinn called out, making everyone chuckle.

Before anyone knew what hit them, it was Halloween. Santana had never really celebrated the holiday (her parents were very much against the thirty first- they considered it a pagan ritual celebration and refused to pass out candy.) To honor her upbringing, Santana chose to not take any candy at the feast on Halloween night. Brittany snuck some to her after the feast was over, anyway. She knew how much Santana liked chocolate. She also knew that, at least this year, Santana would make herself wait until midnight before eating anything sweet.

November seemed to not even occur. It seemed like one morning, Santana fell asleep, and it was November first, and the next moment she woke up, it was December fourteenth and she was about to take her exams.

"Seriously, I do not know where the entire month of November went…" she voiced to her dorm room one night. They were all awake, cramming for their Herbology exam in the morning.

"Oh, I totally agree." Hadeel exhaled from the bed next to her. "Like, one day, it was Halloween, and the next day, here we are; taking finals. Completely ridic."

"Oh my God, thank you." Mercedes groaned and stretched from the other side of Santana. "I was worried it was just me."

"No way, girl. I got chu." Hadeel thrust her chin our in a head nod, making the girls all giggle.

"Guys? What is the root of a potted blue salamater leaf called?" Lauren asked from the other side of the room.

Everyone groaned and went back to flipping through books and note cards.

* * *

Finally. It was _finally_ time for Christmas break.

Santana elected to stay in the castle, because her family was already off visiting distant relatives for the holiday, and she didn't really have a way of getting there. And of course, whatever Santana did, Brittany did. Sam and Quinn wanted to stay with them, but they were both very homesick, so everyone convinced the two of them to go home. But not before swearing that they would all stay behind next year.

Miraculously, Santana had the entire dorm room to herself. It was amazing. She could walk around butt naked if she wanted, and no one would be the wiser. She didn't, of course; it was way too cold for anything less than three layers of clothing at all times.

Brittany stayed with her every night of the break. It was like a three week-long sleepover, with just the two of them, and it was so awesome. They had a pillow fight one night, made roasted marshmallows another, had a snowball fight versus Puck and Blaine (their only other friends to stay behind) and the previous night, Puck had given them their Hanukkah presents and they stayed up all night with their new coloring books. Tonight, they were building a giant blanket fort on one side of the room.

Tomorrow was Christmas, and so, while Santana was carefully arranging comforters so that their fort would not collapse on them, Brittany was hanging their stockings by the furnace in the center of their room.

"Britt, don't put them too close or they might burn!" Santana reminded from her side of the room.

"Got it!" Brittany answered needlessly.

Santana put the finishing touches on the fort by throwing all the pillows in the room, and the extras from the linen closet in the bathroom, on top of the comforters for extra fluff.

"Eeeeeeggcelent." Brittany said in an over- pronounced Russian accent. "Theese will be a wundervol evening!"

Santana fell on top of one of the stripped mattresses in laughter, Brittany joining her with a shit- eating grin and eyes that were crinkled around the edges.

"Follow me, Santana; there are mountains of food to eat our way through downstairs!" Brittany continued in the accent, dragging a Santana roaring in laughter behind her.

There was almost no one in the Great Hall, and the House tables were all combined to make one giant table, although the students that were sitting there barely filled two of them.

Santana and Brittany took their seats across from Puck and Blaine, just as they had every night before.

"I am glad to see some of us in a festive spirit!" Professor Dumbledore announced as he stood to begin his speech, gesturing grandly to the reindeer sweater and Christmas tree bowtie that Blaine was wearing.

"You know," he said, pausing thoughtfully. "This time of year so many people are concerned with what gifts they will be getting. Or if they got their friend a good present. Or, most commonly, what this year's dinner will consist of. I implore you all to remember what the holiday season is all about- yes, it is about relaxing before going back to school in the New Year. It is also, however, a time to spend with those that you love. It is a time for reflection." His eyes flickered to one spot in particular. In front of them, Harry Potter shifted in his seat. "And most importantly, it is a time for peace. It is for this reason that the House tables are combined. So that at least for tonight and tomorrow, the four houses can have relative peace with one another. And with that final sentiment; Bon Appetit!"

Platters of food appeared before them. There were green beans, and stuffed mushrooms, there was a squash and red pepper dish, salad, pasta, pork tenderloin, applesauce, three kinds of potatoes…

They all helped themselves to several servings each of everything, and after they were finished, they had several helpings of dessert. They had an hour of free time before they were required to be in their dormitories, so Brittany and Santana decided to brave the cold and take a quick walk around the lake. Neither Blaine nor Puck were game for going anywhere other than their own beds to sleep off their food comas, so off the girls went.

The girls slid past Peeves, the not-so-friendly castle pest that was making a ruckus near the main entrance, and left through the front door. As soon as they were out of the entryway and into the night Santana cursed loudly.

"HOW IS IT SO COLD." She said through chattering teeth.

"It's this crazy thing… not sure if you've heard of it before, it's called winter?" Brittany sassily replied.

"Oh is that right, Madame Genius?" Santana volleyed right back, making the tips of Brittany's ears turn pink.

"Oh, hush up." Brittany lightly pushed Santana on the shoulder. Santana just laughed.

"You think that was enough force to knock me over? Better start bulking up on protein, Pierce."

"Please, San, if you think I couldn't push you over if I wanted… what is that over there?"

Santana followed Brittany's pointed finger to find a secluded bench on the far side of the lake, where the edge of the lake practically kissed the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

"I have no idea; I don't think I've ever seen that there before. We should definitely check it out, though."

The pair linked arms and edged around the curve of the lake, getting closer and closer to the mystery bench until they were standing right in front of it.

Santana tilted her head. "Hm." She thought. "I still don't see a point in randomly putting this here."

She glanced at Brittany, whose eyes were narrowed at the bench.

"See something, Britt?" she asked.

"Um… yeah, actually…" Brittany decided. She reached forward to brush some snow off the top of the bench seat. Underneath was a metal plaque that read "If you follow your heart, your wishes will come true."

"What on earth does that mean?" Santana joked. Brittany ignored her, however, searching for something in the surrounding trees that Santana obviously didn't see.

"Look!" she said, pointing to a tree a little ways in to the forest. It had a small heart etched onto it. "Can we follow the trail, San?"

Never being one to deny Brittany something, Santana firmly grasped her hand, which was the only sign Brittany needed to march full steam ahead into the Forbidden Forest.

They were only walking for four minutes when Brittany stopped.

"I think whatever we're supposed to find will be behind there." She gestured to the curtain of ivy in front of them. "The last heart was the biggest one yet, and I think that means we've reached the end of our trail."

"Whatever you think, Britt." Santana whispered hoarsely. She was a bit spooked from the forest noises, okay?

Brittany pushed past the ivy to find a row of trellises, covered in their own ivy, leading the way to a tinkling fountain.

"What on earth?" Santana inquired aloud to deaf ears as she was whisked toward the fountain. There was a small mahogany box on top of a white marble pedestal right next to the fountain. The box held smooth, round stones in it. The words "One per person" were etched into the side.

Brittany was quiet a minute, studying this.

"Santana," she finally said, "I think this is a wishing well."

Santana's eyebrows shot up. She, of course, knew all the stories about wishing wells from when she was very small- how they only appeared every few years in random places and how anything you wished in them would come true. She took the stone that Brittany held out for her with new awe. She stared into the black surface, trying to gleam out what wish she should want to come true. She quickly glanced at Brittany, wondering if she knew what to wish for. Brittany must have felt her gaze and glanced up and smiled beautifully (the one that always stopped Santana's heart) and crinkled her nose in glee. She clearly had a wish. And one glance at those blue eyes, shining with the reflection of a hundred stars, and Santana knew her wish, too.

"Ready?" Brittany asked. Santana had a feeling she already knew the answer.

"Always."

Both girls turned around, closed their eyes, and wished.

"_Please please please. Let us be friends forever._" Santana wished before throwing her stone. As soon as she released hers, she heard the soft _plop!_ that was Brittany's stone hitting the water before hers.

Both girls sighed wistfully.

"Wish for something good?" Santana asked her friend, taking her hand as they turned to walk away.

"The best." Brittany replied coyly. Santana gave her a look.

"Santana." Brittany said seriously. "Everyone knows you can't tell someone your wish or it won't come true."

"Fine, will you tell me after it comes true, then?"

"Duh."

* * *

Santana shifted in her sleep. Her face was on something really squishy. It was very comfortable, but she couldn't, for the life of her, figure out what it was.

She blearily opened her eyes and came face- to- face- or, rather, mouth- to- breast- with Brittany's boob.

Santana reeled backwards and hastily rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

Brittany stretched out under her like a cat, arching her back into the air.

"Mmm. Merry Christmas to you, too."

Santana stared at Brittany in disbelief. Did that really just happen?

Santana was interrupted in her musings by a pillow hitting the side of her head.

"Stop thinking and come here so we can cuddleeeeee." Brittany whined from the bed. And when she made the face she was currently wearing, Santana couldn't refuse.

So with a great sigh and roll of her eyes, she crawled back into her bed and snuggled up under Brittany's arm.

They awoke a few hours after going back to bed. Stretching her sore limbs, Brittany cracked her back and opened her eyes. She started lightly nudging Santana awake. At the foot of their bed was a pile of wrapped presents, and Brittany could see the stockings by the furnace bursting with gifts.

"Santana Lopez!" Brittany said crossly.

Santana groaned.

Brittany sighed, and crawled right up to Santana's ear, whispering "Sanny, if you don't get up this minute, I'm going to open all your presents."

Santana sat upright in bed, hair completely all over her face. Brittany laughed and pushed her hair back on her head. She leaned over and gave Santana a smacking kiss on the cheek, and set into tearing open the nearest present. She didn't see Santana behind her; lifting her hand to her cheek and grinning widely.

Brittany was squealing at the book Mike got her (100 Ways to Attract Unicorns) when a sharp tap at the window caused both girls' heads to swivel.

Archimedes, Santana's owl, was visibly struggling, trying to juggle several letters and two small packages.

Santana bolted from the bed to let the poor creature in, immediately untying the string from his leg. He stayed right where he was for a moment, clearly too tired to fly over to his cage. Santana left the letters, scooped him up and gave his soft head a kiss before placing him gently in the cage. He nibbled her fingers a little in affection before she left.

Brittany had decided she and Santana should take turns opening presents, so she was calmly waiting on the bed for Santana to get back.

Santana walked over to the stack of letters and split them up. There was a letter for Brittany from her parents and sister, one from her roommate Nadia, and one from Mike. There were letters to Santana from her family, one from Artie, and one from Mercedes. There was one letter each from Sam, Quinn, and Rachel, which were addressed to both girls.

"Holy smokes, that's a lot of letters!" Brittany exclaimed in wonder.

"Poor baby." Santana cooed up at Archie. "You must have grown even stronger to carry so many letters!" Archie puffed out his chest slightly.

Brittany was reading the letter from Mike and giggling frequently, causing Santana to shift uncomfortably next to her. She gruffly tore open the envelope from Artie.

"_Hey girl hey._ _I realize that your fine bottom must be bored to death without me, so I decided to take pity on you and write you for Christmas. Hope yours is going better than mine, anyway. My uncle got me a snowboard. See you soon. Yours, Artie Abrams"_

Santana laughed loudly at his humor, before opening a similarly- worded letter from Mercedes. "_Those two would be such good friends… I'll definitely try to set them up."_ She thought to herself.

She glanced at Brittany to see what she was doing and found her crying from laughter, with a hand over her mouth to muffle the sound. She could see she was reading a full three pages of letter, and assumed she was reading Rachel's.

The theory proved to be correct when she leaned over Brittany's shoulder to read and caught phrases like "_If I had been aware of this egregious oversight that is you two being by yourselves, with no other friend to spend time with during this Hanukah holiday season, I would have stayed behind…_" and "_As such, I would like to cordially invite you two to a slumber fie-es-ta, as your people call it, Santana, in my dorm after the New Year. Please bring your own pillows…_"

"Is she kidding?" Santana asked in disbelief.

Brittany turned the letter over. "I think she's serious…" Brittany dragged the end of her sentence out in surprise.

"I hope she's not serious. Spending a whole night in Berry's dorm? Can you imagine the pink that must be thrown up all over her bed? I think I'm getting sick already."

"Now, Santana, be nice. I think it's sweet! She didn't have to invite us, but she took the time to anyway! I think it's great!"

Santana looked at Brittany's puppy dog pout and big, pleading eyes, her reluctance slowly fading away.

"Ugh, alright, fine. You win, okay?"

Brittany clapped her hands like a happy seal and threw them around Santana in thanks.

The girls eventually dragged themselves down all thirty flights of stairs to the Great Hall, just in time for mid-morning tea. The girls hugged Puck and Blaine and took their familiar seats with them. Puck 'didn't do' tea, but Blaine became quite the gossip while drinking the brew; so everyone had a good laugh.

After lunch, the group decided to watch a few muggle holiday movies. The school library kept some on file for the Muggle Studies classes, and Hogwarts had a small movie theatre dedicated to the class. Almost no one knew about it, but Quinn's brother Peter had told her just before everyone left for break. Quinn had told the four of them in secret and the four tweens were planning on taking full advantage of said secret.

After watching 'Christmas Carol' and 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' Santana and Puck decided to have a Snowman build-off, with Brittany and Blaine judging. Santana's snowman won first place by a landslide, causing Puck to sulk. Brittany decided throwing a snowball at the back of his head was an excellent way to cheer him up. This, of course, led to an all-out snowball fight, with Brittany, Blaine, and Santana all on one side vs. Puck. They eventually agreed to a draw, both parties needing to warm up a little and get dried off.

Later that night, Brittany and Santana were getting changed for the cocktail dinner party that would be held in the Great Hall. Santana had on a pretty red dress while Brittany was twirling her yellow dress around to see if it 'passed the danceable test.'

Santana was putting mascara on when Brittany finally waltzed in wearing a midnight blue gown that made her eyes sparkle even more than usual. Santana forgot what she was doing.

"Britt, you look… wow."

"You really think so?"

Santana took a deep breath, and turned to face her friend.

"You look beautiful, Brittany." Her eyes suddenly swept to the floor. "I'm sure any guy would love to dance with you."

"Yeah, they probably would." Brittany nodded her head, stroking her chin in agreement. "Too bad I'm going to dance with you."

Santana felt her breath catch in her chest.

"Britt…"

"I'll race you, San! Last one there's a rotten egg!"

Santana paused, watching her friend run out the door, slack-jawed, until Brittany's words registered. "Oh you did _not_ just say I'm a rotten egg!" she shouted before barreling after Brittany, the girl giggling down the steps to below.

"Britt, this is so not what I was expecting…"

There were thirty or so people wandering aimlessly across the floor, which had been cleared of the house tables. A dance floor was set up in the center, but no one was dancing on it. Save for Hagrid, who was doing some disco moves by himself.

"Yeah, this party is pretty lame. Even in comparison to the one Rachel's gonna throw." Brittany giggled. Santana grinned at her before spotting the Mohawk weaving its way through a sea of people, alluding to the fact that, in actuality, Puck was a shark.

"Hey babes." He greeted the two of them. "Can the Puckstar take you two ladies out to the floor for a dance each?" Blaine walked over and joined in the conversation. "I'd be happy to dance with whoever Puck isn't dancing with." He stated, charming as ever. Brittany smiled and took Blaine's hand, leaving Santana with Puck.

"Soooo…" he started, walking towards Santana with a predatory glint in her eye.

"Um, absolutely not. Definitely, the answer is no."

"Oh come on, San. It's just one dance!" He pleaded, pouting drastically up at her.

"Ugh, fine. One dance, and that's it."

Puck fist bumped the air, making Santana regret she even spoke to him today.

He led her to the floor, and once he got the hang of things, he was not actually a half-bad dancing partner. He knew when and where to step, and the big one; which foot to do it with.

After resisting any more physical contact than necessary for most of the song, Santana finally gave in and leaned her head on Puck's shoulder. She could see Brittany and Blaine being freaking elegant ballerinas in the distance and it was frankly upsetting her. For his part, Puck just pulled her body in closer so that she wouldn't stretch her neck too far, and spun them in smaller circles.

"You're not actually that awful, Puckerman."

He laughed lightly. "That means a lot, coming from you." Puck weighed his next sentence before speaking it. "You know, I'm really not a bad guy."

"…What do you mean?"

"I know everyone always thinks I'm some big player who just tries to date as many girls as possible. It's not true. I think I'd be an awesome boyfriend. And, you know. You're a badass, I'm a badass… I think we'd be really good for each other. Whaddya say?"

"Noah…"

"THERE you are." Brittany announced, swinging into the conversation. "You promised me a dance, Santana Lopez!"

Puck looked up at Brittany wistfully, clearly unimpressed with her for stopping Santana's answer.

"Just… hit me up later, alright San?"

Santana gaped at his use of her nickname and watched him walk away. When she finally shot Brittany a glance, she saw that her friend was glaring daggers in Puck's general direction. If looks could kill, Puck would be on the floor right now.

"Brittany," she breathed to get her attention. Brittany's gaze shifted to hers and her eyes softened. "Are you… are you jealous of him?"

Brittany laughed obnoxiously. "ME? You think I'm jealous of HIM? Puh- lease." She tisked and rolled her eyes, still sputtering in offended, short bursts.

"Whatever, Britt. How was dancing with Blaine?" Santana spat.

"Um, it was awesome, like always? It was just like Glee rehearsal, but more fun. Why do you want to know?" Brittany shrugged.

"You are _impossible_." Santana threw up her hands in irritation and went to storm out of the Great Hall. Brittany managed to catch her arm in time.

"San what is the matter with you? I dance with Blaine and Mike and all the other Glee boys all the time! Are _you_ jealous?"

Santana just looked at her, a mixture of sadness and fury. "No, Brittany, I'm not. I just- please leave me alone." Santana gathered her dress and successfully fled the room.

* * *

Santana paced the floor of her dormitory.

She wasn't sure what else she could do to get her mind off of her fight with Brittany. It wasn't even a fight, really, but she and Brittany had never had an argument that was that strong before.

Santana had already torn up all of the envelopes from their cards earlier. The pieces were strewn across the floor, giving off the appearance of snow. It only helped a little.

Santana flopped down on her bed. She wished she could make some tea. The tea she had earlier with Blaine, Brittany and Puck had calmed her down exponentially. The hot water really tricked her body into calming down.

Speaking of hot water…

"_A shower._" Santana thought, "_That's exactly what I need_."

So she gathered her towel and shampoo from her cubby in the bathroom, stepped out of her clothes and into a stall.

After washing her hair, she stood under the steady stream of water, thinking about her actions. She knew she was out of line. First accusing Brittany of being jealous, and then acting so spiteful herself because of her own jealousy of Mike and Blaine and every other boy that Brittany hung out with… needless to say, she totally owed Brittany an apology.

She reluctantly stepped out and away from the deliciously warm cascading water, wringed out her hair and toweled off. She had picked out her favorite pajamas to wear- ones that Brittany gave her last year for her birthday. Santana carefully opened the door connecting the bathroom and the dorm rooms.

And there she was, sitting on the edge of Santana's bed and wringing her hands anxiously.

"San," she started, jolting off of the bed and stepping towards Santana in the doorframe.

They stood still, both sizing the other up and anxiously looking around the room, anticipating a catapult into motion.

"_I'm so sorry._" Both girls said at the same time.

"What are you possibly sorry for? You didn't do anything wrong." Santana gulped, appalled.

"I totally did. I'm sorry for kind of ignoring you to dance with Blaine. That must have made you feel really bad, and I'm sorry." Brittany looked to the floor, disheartened.

"Britt," Santana breathed, "You don't have to apologize for that. I'm sorry that I got so jealous over you dancing with someone else that I blew up at you."

Brittany smiled at her, ever-so-softly. Santana smiled back, just as small.

"Does this mean we're done being mad at each other?" Brittany inquired with a pout.

Santana chuckled. "Yeah, Britt, we're good."

"Okay." Brittany smiled wider at her in response. Her expression turned curious, and she glanced around Santana's head, causing Santana to turn her own head and find what her friend was looking for.

"Um, I have a second question. When did you put that up?" Brittany pointed above Santana's head. Santana brought her head back and glanced up. On the doorframe in between the bathroom and bedroom, someone had stuck a leaf of mistletoe.

"Very funny, Britt, you must've put that there when I was taking my shower. It wasn't there when I went in."

"Well, it was there when I first came in. I pinky promise you. I didn't realize what it was until I came closer."

Santana looked at Brittany for a moment, and saw she was telling the truth. Her expression became rather confused.

"But… if you didn't put the mistletoe up there, and I didn't put it up there… who did?"

"It was probably Santa's elves." Brittany answered seriously. "The question is; do you want to use it?"

"…Come again?" Santana blinked.

"I guess… I'm asking… Can I kiss you, Santana?"

"I… I…" Santana choked.

"I've been thinking about it for a while now."

"Y- You have?" Santana asked, still having difficulty swallowing past the tightness in her chest.

"Well, yeah. You haven't had your first kiss yet, right?" Santana shook her head. "Well, neither have I. I think you're amazing, and you're my best friend, and I really want it to be with you. I really want to kiss you."

Santana was having problems breathing, Brittany was edging closer and closer.

"_This is not about to happen_." She heard floating around the back of her head.

Brittany's nose touched the tip of hers, and she stopped moving.

"Can I kiss you now?" she breathed into Santana's skin.

Santana frantically nodded.

Brittany edged her head forward just a hair.

Santana could hear her own ragged breath mixing with Brittany's uneven ones.

Brittany's breath suddenly hitched.

Santana blinked her eyes open to find Brittany clearly taking a moment to study everything about Santana's face in its state of delighted anticipation. Brittany's fingers reached and splayed across Santana's cheek, stroking a line into her cheek and down to her jaw, softly and ever so tenderly.

Sensing a kiss would take more than two seconds to happen; Santana brought her hands up and threaded her fingers through Brittany's thin golden hair. She guided her head forward until their lips were… just… _there._

Santana pressed her lips against Brittany's, tasting her best friend's lip balm and something that she could only classify as happiness. Her mind was going haywire in an instant, and in the next, only one thing remaining there as it went completely blank.

_Butterflies. Thousands and thousands of them._

* * *

**A/N 2: So I really am sorry about it taking so long. I had a lot of personal issues to deal with last semester.**

**But, kisses, yes? Hooray!**

**Could you spot the three throwaway mentions of Harry Potter characters?**

**Like anything about the chapter? **

**Please read and review! :) **

**Thanks for reading!**


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